The United States is not willing to let its hegemony go aside, and in recent years, it has attacked from all sides, provoked many wars, and watched China and Russia invest and develop in the Arctic, so the United States has also developed its own new strategy for the Arctic, requiring claims to a continental shelf of more than one million square kilometers.
The battlefield between Russia and Ukraine has gradually become clear, and the United States has begun to abandon Ukraine and firmly support Israel in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but it is facing pressure from the international community to support the two-state solution, and China has also forced China to turn back by instigating the Philippines to find fault in the South China Sea.
With global warming, China and Russia jointly develop ports and oil and gas resources in the Arctic region, China has also been committed to the development of the Arctic route, as the maritime hegemon of the United States, seeing that China and Russia have moved, they can't help but want a piece of the pie, so they unilaterally announced that they want to expand their continental shelf in the Arctic region.
The continental shelf claimed by the United States this time is mainly located in the Arctic and Bering Sea areas, covering an area of one million square kilometers, equivalent to 15 Ukraine, or two California regions.
Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia all claim sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean seabed, which contains more than 83 billion tonnes of standard fuel.
The Arctic also has a high strategic value, and the nearest line to the United States through the Arctic is nearly 3,000 kilometers longer than the Pacific line, so the Arctic has also become a battleground for the United States, so the United States ignored the requirements of the United Nations and directly expanded its continental shelf by one million square kilometers.
The United States is ready to form a powerful mobile force to establish absolute dominance in the Arctic and control key shipping lanes by relying on a constellation of satellites in space and geographical convenience. However, under international law, the Arctic and its surrounding Arctic Ocean do not belong to any country.
Although the United States claims that it has nothing to do with Russia, but only with Canada and Japan, the United States' territorial claims in the Arctic will hinder the Arctic shipping routes, and the new Arctic strategy announced by the United States is trying to completely squeeze Russia and China out of the Arctic.
For China, on the one hand, it is to participate in the investment and development of the Arctic, and on the other hand, the Arctic route is also a top priority, as the northern route of the Maritime Silk Road, this ice Silk Road can shorten the journey by 10-15 days compared to the traditional shipping route through the Strait of Malacca.
According to international law, although sovereignty over the Svalbard Islands in the Arctic was assigned to Norway, after the end of World War I, 18 countries, including the United States, Britain and France, jointly signed the "Svalbard Islands Treaty" and designated the Arctic as a zone for international cooperation and joint development.
As long as the signatory countries participate in the Svalbard Treaty, they can enjoy equal rights in this area to do business, inspection, passage, economic development and so on.
There is also an interesting historical story here, when the French minister to China submitted a note to Beiyang**, inviting China to join the "Svalbard Islands Treaty", but no one paid attention to it at the time, thinking that the foreign powers' request for signing was not necessarily a good thing.
It was not until five years later, in April 1925, that at the request of France, this treaty was turned out, and after confirming that there was no harm to China, Duan Qirui at that time formally signed this treaty temporarily, which also meant that China joined the "Svalbard Treaty".
Joining the treaty also means that China has obtained the legal right to conduct scientific research and commercial activities in the Arctic region within the framework of international law, but after signing the treaty at that time, due to years of war, this matter was gradually forgotten.
It was not until 1991 that Chinese scientists stumbled upon the English version of the treaty when they were exploring the Arctic, and after many confirmations, it was found that China was indeed a signatory member of the organization, so China began to participate in the Arctic scientific expedition in 1997, and in 2004 established its own scientific research station "China Arctic Yellow River Station", and there were two stone lions squatting at the door.
The whole world will not accept the United States' unilateral announcement of increasing its continental shelf, and it is still trying to develop a set of methods to control sea routes, especially the recent control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait by the Houthi forces, which has already had a great impact, and the United States wants to control the Arctic shipping lanes alone.
In the future, there may also be a vicious war in the Arctic, with China, the United States and Russia invariably turning to the Arctic, and the complex geopolitical relations in the Arctic Circle will further deteriorate.