Melting Ice Opens Fight Over Sea Routes for Arctic Debate
By Flavia Krause-Jackson & Nicole Gaouette - May 12, 2013 8:00 PM ET
When 16th and 17th century European explorers sailed west in pursuit of a trade route to Asia, their search for a Northwest Passage was foiled by Arctic ice.
Five hundred years later, melting icecaps have set off a global race to control new shipping lanes over the North Pole. Just as the discoveries of Ferdinand Magellan and Vasco de Gama gave seafaring Portugal routes around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, the opening of the Arctic, with its shortcut from the Atlantic to northeast Asia and its untapped oil reserves, can redraw the geopolitical map and create new power brokers.
When the U.S., Russia and six other major stakeholders of the Arctic Council meet May 15 in the northernmost Swedish city of Kiruna, they’ll be joined by nations with observer status, including China and the European Union, that are angling for an elevated status in the diplomatic club and a greater say in the region’s future.
New passages linking Asia to America and Europe will be as revolutionary as was the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal, which boosted European trade with Asia by connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and shortening the journey for cargo vessels, according to President Olafur R. Grimsson of Iceland, home to the world’s biggest glaciers and a member of the council.
In a visit to Washington last month, Grimsson said his core mission was to “try to wake this town to the fact that the Arctic should be among the top priorities for the U.S. foreign policy in the first half of the 21st century” and no longer relegated to its “backyard.”
more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-13/melting-ice-opens-fight-over-sea-routes-for-arctic-debate.html
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