Although Arctic issues and those of the...

On March 29, Chelsea, Canada hosted a meeting of Arctic Ocean Foreign Ministers from Canada, the United States, Russia, Denmark and Norway that share the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

One thing is clear from the meeting: many other countries want access to the region. Nobody would dare tell China, who is openly eyeing the resource-rich Arctic, to keep out. The eventual re-division of the area"s mineral resources seems inevitable.

It is high time everybody stopped wondering how many non-Arctic nations want access to the region, including its oil and gas deposits. I addition, the Arctic has a unique natural feature giving it natural-monopolist status. Due to global warming, Arctic sea passages in northern Russia and Canada remain ice-free for increasingly longer periods.

Year-round navigation would shorten merchant-marine traffic routes from China to Germany or the U.S. East Coast by 6,000-7,000 km in one direction.

A carefully orchestrated effort by Ottawa

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