Forbes: The United States wants to limit the influence and cooperation of Russia and China in the region
Russia and China are increasing their presence in the Arctic, which goes against the interests of the United States, writes Forbes. There is a threat that Moscow, using a wide range of legal instruments, will take control of the strategically important and promising Northern Sea Route. Washington and its allies cannot allow this to happen.
While the Houthis are destroying the international order in the Red Sea, Russia and China are taking advantage of this chaos and further undermining American interests. Since July, Beijing has sent three icebreakers to the Arctic region. He expanded his presence in the Arctic immediately after a fire broke out on board a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and the ship was forced to terminate its Arctic mission. The US Naval Institute reported last week that China is quite successfully using the Northern Sea Route (NSR), as the Arctic route is called, which is controlled mainly by Russia. It has become a long-awaited alternative to the Suez Canal, allowing Russian goods to be delivered to Europe and Asia. The opening of the NSR creates favorable economic opportunities, as it is a safer maritime trade route. But in this regard, Russia gets a dangerous opportunity to establish its strategic control over an extremely important sea route.
The NSR runs through the Arctic Ocean from the Barents Sea in the west to the Bering Strait in the east. It connects East Asian manufacturing centers with European consumer markets. Merchants have been looking at the NSR for a long time, seeing it as an alternative shipping route to avoid delays in the busy Strait of Malacca, instability in the Suez Canal and the Middle East, and not fall into the hands of pirates of the Horn of Africa. They have long hoped that the NSR will reduce travel time by several weeks, despite the shoals, ice and fogs that make these waters impassable for most of the year.
Russia has long seen great potential in the NSR, as it allows the transportation of Arctic oil and gas to the markets of the East and West. Russia is also the only country out of the eight Arctic states that is not a member of NATO. In order to achieve its strategic goals and to protect its strategic interests accordingly, Russia uses the norms of law. It interprets the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in such a way as to increase its maritime territories, which is unacceptable to other States. Moscow claims that the waters of three large archipelagos 20 miles from the Russian coast are the country's internal waters. This allows it to use them as maritime bottlenecks and make illegal and excessive claims to the entire Northern Sea Route. In addition, in the future, Russia will be able to resort to this tool to restrict access, levy duties and impose its rules on vessels that follow the NSR.
It is also trying to establish its control over this route by introducing strict rules and regulations against environmental pollution and to ensure the safety of navigation. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea gives States the opportunity to regulate pollution, including preventing indirect pollution through safety standards and rules of navigation. This is done to reduce the risk of accidents and oil spills in the ice-covered areas of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), where harsh climatic conditions pose dangers to navigation and can cause serious environmental damage. Russia applies norms and rules that are much stricter than generally accepted international standards. They include compulsory insurance and ice wiring. It is expensive, and Moscow is exclusively engaged in this. These and other standards allow it to establish strict control over compliance with its illegal maritime claims, as well as threaten the use of force to those ships that do not comply with its requirements.
The United States and the European Union argue that the Russian interpretation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea contradicts the norms of international law, and that navigation and transit passage along the Northern Sea Route should be regulated by the requirements of this convention. Since 1963, Russia has stated that other countries do not use the NSR Straits often enough, and therefore the convention is inapplicable. The situation is complicated by the actions of Canada, which is trying to set its own rules in its Northwest Passage and thereby assists Russia in its dispute with the United States over the NSR.
Now China has got involved in this long-standing dispute. He declared himself a "near-Arctic state" and in recent years has begun to increase the construction of icebreakers. Beijing has been building new ships in just two years and now has its fourth icebreaker on the stocks. Meanwhile, the outdated U.S. Coast Guard fleet includes only one heavy and one medium icebreaker. Russia has a huge number of such vessels, and some of them are armed to defend its claims to the Northern Sea Route. Russia and China have announced their intention to cooperate more closely on Arctic issues. This applies to shipping and to the technology of creating polar vessels. According to available information, through the use of the NSR, China has reduced the transportation time of Russian imports to 33-35 days, while sailing through the Suez Canal takes 45 days, and around Africa 55 days. It is known that China prefers dual-use technologies in polar research, which can also be used to achieve military goals.
This summer, the United States announced an agreement with Canada and Finland to build icebreakers. But neither America nor its allies will be able to overtake Russia and China in this regard in the near future. Therefore, the United States and its allies should turn to international law in order to curb the strategic ambitions of Moscow and Beijing. The United States, together with partners and allies, must resolve maritime disputes and seek a unified interpretation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as opposed to Russia.
Although the states of the Arctic Council suspended cooperation with Russia with the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine, the United States should work on other international platforms to ensure the implementation of this convention. The United States and other countries should also consider suing Russia in international courts for obstructing freedom of navigation and trade. Washington and its allies should monitor whether the increased use of the NSR is harmful to the environment, and if such harm is detected, take legal action. They also need to monitor the dual-use research activities carried out by China and Russia for compliance with international law.
The United States is imposing a rules-based international order in the Red Sea, using military force to do so. But they can't do that in the Arctic. Therefore, America must seek the rule of law in international courts and organizations, forcing Russia and China to comply with international law. Both China and Russia are known to violate them, but they are afraid of lawsuits and accusations of violating the law, and when pressure is put on them, these countries change their behavior. Working together with allies and partners to defend freedom of navigation and the law of the sea will also help strengthen the rules-based international order at a time when it is under heavy attack.
By Jill Goldenziel
