There has been plenty of discussion over the last few days regarding the growing pressure and threats to Canadian influence in the Arctic North.
Canada has taken some steps to increase it sovereignty in that region but is it enough?
The shrinking of the Arctic ice cap is progressing and will begin to make the NW passage a much more feasible and economic alternative as a major trade route from Japan and China to both Europe and the East coast of the US however, where this to occur there is a sovereignty problem.
Canada claims the NW Passage and adjacent seas as internal waters where “Freedom of Navigation” is not recognised.
There are a number of “International Waterways” , maritime and inland transport routes, created by a series of international treaties that allow “Freedom of Navigation” in semi enclosed seas and rivers. These include the obvious such as the Suez and Panama Canals, the Danube and Rhine Rivers and also the Bosphorus and Dardanelles and the Malacca and Danish Straits. There are more.
All these allow both merchant and war vessels freedom to pass at will.
What will Canada’s response be and if it maintains complete sovereignty will the trading nations respect that?
It seems these are the strategic questions which should be occupying the minds of those in Ottawa Because the day will come when a Chinese ship is escorted through the NE Passage by a PLA-N destroyer, then what?
