丹麥正式對北極點提出主權要求

The Great Game is heading to the Arctic.

大博弈(Great Game)正在走向北極圈。

Just days before Christmas, Denmark has become the first country to lay formal claim over the North Pole. That puts the small Nordic country of 5.6m people on a diplomatic collision course with Russia and Canada which each claim part of the Arctic above where the countries’ current borders end.

距離聖誕節僅幾天之際，丹麥成爲首個對北極點(North Pole)提出正式主權要求的國家。這個560萬人口的北歐小國由此進入與俄羅斯和加拿大發生外交衝突的軌道，後兩個國家都對本國現有國界以北的北極圈部分地區提出了主權要求。

“That these countries have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the determination of their outer limits tells us how important the Arctic has become. The Great Game is moving to the north,” said Rob Huebert, Arctic expert at the University of Calgary.

加拿大卡爾加里大學(University of Calgary)的北極圈問題專家羅布•許貝特(Rob Huebert)表示：“這些國家花了數億美元資金用於確定北部國界，這告訴我們北極圈已變得多麼重要。大博弈正在向北轉移。”

Denmark presented a claim at the United Nations on Monday to about 900,000 square kilometres beyond the coast of Greenland, an autonomous territory within Denmark. That follows Canada saying last year that it would submit a claim to the North Pole but first needed to gather more data.

丹麥週一在聯合國(UN)對格陵蘭島海岸線以外的約90萬平方公里土地提出了主權要求，格陵蘭島是丹麥境內的自治領土。在此之前的去年，加拿大曾表示將在收集更多數據後，對北極點提出主權要求。

At stake are the huge, untapped resources of oil, gas and minerals thought to lie under the Arctic. A US government study suggests that as much as 30 per cent of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13 per cent of its oil could lie in the Arctic.

這些博弈關係到北極圈下據信埋藏的巨大未開採石油、天然氣和礦產儲量。美國政府的一項研究顯示，世界上未被發現的天然氣和石油分別有30%和13%可能埋藏在北極圈下。

The Arctic has failed to live up to dire warnings before, notably after a submarine planted a Russian flag beneath the pole in 2007, while oil exploration attempts have disappointed.

以往有關北極圈的嚴峻警告後來不了了之，特別是在2007年，一艘潛水艇將一面俄羅斯國旗插在北極點正下方的海底。與此同時，石油勘探活動的結果迄今令人失望。

Beyond that, each country has to submit a claim within 10 years of ratifying the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Both Norway and Russia have already done so while Canada has indicated it would. The US has yet to ratify the convention.

除此之外，每個國家都必須在批准《聯合國海洋法公約》(UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS)之後的10年內提出主張。挪威和俄羅斯已經這樣做了，而加拿大已表示會這樣做。美國還未批准該公約。

But European diplomats fret that the relatively cordial relations between Arctic states have been strained by Russia’s invasion of Crimea and Moscow’s push to build new military bases in the Arctic. “The Arctic has been the one area where Russia has shown itself to be co-operative but now the warning signs are there that things could get more difficult,” said a former Nordic minister.

但歐洲外交人士擔心，俄羅斯吞併克里米亞、以及莫斯科方面謀求在北極圈建立新軍事基地的舉動，已破壞了北極國家之間相對友善的關係。北歐某國一名前任部長表示：“北極圈迄今是俄羅斯表現出合作意願的一個領域，但如今有一些值得警惕的信號，顯示局面可能會變得棘手起來。”

All countries’ borders currently end 200 nautical miles from their coasts in the Arctic, leaving a vast patch of land owned by nobody. Denmark is following Norway, Russia and Canada in submitting a claim under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to a portion of the Arctic.

目前所有國家的國界線都止於其北極圈海岸線以外200海里處，這意味着有大量無主土地。丹麥正跟隨挪威、俄羅斯和加拿大的腳步，根據《聯合國海洋法公約》對北極圈部分土地提出主權要求。