Canada troops assert Arctic sovereignty

Aboard the HMCS Fredericton, Arctic Ocean – The largest-ever military exercise in the Arctic is under way this week to firm Canada’s disputed claim to this lonely region.

“It’s a sovereignty operation” to counter grabs by Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States, Brigadier General Chris Whitecross, commander of Joint Task Force North, told AFP.

Each nation is claiming flaps of Arctic seabed, believed to hold 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves. All of them, including its allies, deny Ottawa’s hold on the famed Northwest Passage.

IOL