The move was agreed with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf and Russia's neighbors, including Japan, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in remarks made while visiting the Kuril islands.
"I have signed a decree that sets the Russian border on the Okhotsk Sea continental shelf," he was quoted by Russian agencies as saying.
"This means that we can develop our shelf where there are vast sources of raw materials, vast energy deposits.
"As a result our shelf got 50 thousand square kilometers (19,000 square miles) larger," he said.
The decree setting the area as Russia's economic zone, which was posted on the government's website on Saturday, is dated August 15.
Under international law, a country has exclusive economic rights over the continental shelf within a 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometre) radius from its coast.
Russia has been claiming its economic right over large parts of the continental shelf, and earlier this month filed a submission at the UN commission for some 1.2 million square kilometers of the Arctic shelf, including the North Pole.
The Okhotsk shelf submission concerns a sliver of open sea -- the so-called "peanut hole" -- which lies beyond the 200 kilometre line in the middle of the marginal sea between Russia's Kamchatka peninsula and the Sakhalin island.
It has been a subject of disputes after over-fishing became a problem in the early 1990s.
Russia's submission was first filed in 2001 and refiled again in February 2013. It was reviewed and approved last year and did not draw objections from Japan, which however noted that it still considers four Kuril islands south of Kamchatka its own.
Russia is developing several oil and gas fields in the Okhotsk sea near Sakhalin island and plans to expand production, though some of the projects have fallen under US sanctions over Moscow's actions over Ukraine.
AFP
dailystar.com.lb
22/8/15
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Related:
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Medvedev trip to disputed island criticized by Tokyo...
Medvedev inks order to increase Russia's shelf by 50,000 square kilometres...
- The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has recognized the Sea of Okhotsk enclave with an area of 52,000 sq.km part of the Russian continental shelf, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Sergey Donskoy told Russian journalists today.
He said that
the ministry has received a formal certificate from the UN Commission
satisfying Russia’s appeal to recognize the enclave in the Sea of
Okhotsk part of the Russian shelf. This is an actually acknowledged fact
and I can congratulate everyone, the minister said.
Answering an
Itar-Tass correspondent’s question, the minister stressed that the
decision on the enclave is final and not subject to revision. Now the
enclave is fully under Russia’s jurisdiction, the minister said.
According to geologists’ estimates, the total volume of oil and gas fields prospected in that area exceeds a billion tons.
- UN sub-commission recognizes Sea of Okhotsk enclave as part of Russia's continental shelf
A UN sub-commission has agreed with the arguments presented by Russia and has recognized a 52,000-square-kilometer enclave in the middle of the Sea of Okhotsk as a part of Russia's continental shelf, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry said in a press release.
The UN sub-commission will now draw up appropriate recommendations for the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf and present them at the next, 33rd, session of the commission in February-March 2014.
The judicial procedures confirming the enclave's belonging to the Russian continental shelf will be finalized after the commission's board endorses these recommendations, the ministry said.
The inclusion of the Sea of Okhotsk enclave in Russia's continental shelf will establish Russia's exclusive rights to the enclave's subsoil resources and seabed.
The territory of the enclave, which is still legally a part of the world ocean, will be regulated by Russian laws concerning the continental shelf.
- It means that the Sea of Okhotsk will be fully recognized by the international community as Russia's internal sea, to which Russian requirements for fishing, security and environmental protection will be applied.
Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi was quoted as saying by the press release that "it took Russia many years to achieve this success."
"Thanks to recognition of this enclave as a part of the Russian continental shelf, our country will gain more reserves of valuable minerals and other natural resources.
- This 52,000-square-kilometer territory is a real Ali Baba's cave in terms of resources. Access to it will open up enormous opportunities and prospects for the Russian economy," the minister said.
Voice of Russia, TASS, Interfax
http://voiceofrussia.com/news
15/3/14
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