U.S. Wants 'Secure And Stable' Arctic, Hagel Says

By: By Terrell Johnson

Published: November 22,2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

NASA

As the warming of the Arctic transforms this frozen polar region – opening up new opportunities for energy exploration, commercial shipping, and even tourism – the United States plans to assert its sovereignty there with unprecedented focus, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told a Canadian security forum Friday.
While this could strain relations with its fellow Arctic nations – a group that includes Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden – the U.S. pledges to work "within a common framework of International law and diplomatic engagement," Hagel said.
"As President Obama has said, 'the Arctic region is peaceful, stable, and free of conflict,'" he added. "Our goal is to help assure it stays that way."
Hagel's remarks were among his highest-profile to date on the ways in which climate change will impact relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world, adding that the changes now going on in the Arctic offer both "opportunities" and "challenges."
"Climate change is shifting the landscape in the Arctic more rapidly than anywhere else in the world," noted Hagel, adding that traffic this year in the Arctic's Northern Sea Route is expected to increase by a factor of ten over last year's.
"While the Arctic temperature rise is relatively small in absolute terms, its effects are significant – transforming what was a frozen desert into an evolving navigable ocean, giving rise to an unprecedented level of human activity."
Of particular interest are the oil and gas reserves that are believed to lie beneath once-impenetrable Arctic ice, which are estimated at about a quarter of the planet's untapped energy reserves – and already have attracted "a flood of interest" in energy exploration there.
Tensions could mount over control of these potential reserves, he added, "even though most projected oil and gas reserves in the region are located within undisputed exclusive economic zones."
Read the full text of Secretary Hagel's remarks here.
See the Department of Defense's 2013 Arctic Strategy here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Part of the glacial ice sheet that covers about 80 percent of the country is seen on July 17, 2013, on the Glacial Ice Sheet, Greenland. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)