Russia's new claim using the Doctrine of Discovery, to the seabed under the Artic polar ice cap, has a New Zealand connection. The most conspicuous link was with a NZ company, as this New Zealand Herald article explains.
The other link to Russia's extension of their continental shelf, is that the New Zealand Government has undertaken a similar extension to their own continental shelf, protruding North into the waters of the South Pacific, adjacent to Economic Exclusive Zones(EEZ) of Tonga and Fiji.
New Zealand had conducted preliminary discussions with Fiji and Tonga with respect to the area of overlapping continental shelf along the Colville and Kermadec Ridge complex that extends from the north of the North Island to Fiji and Tonga. Under the U.N Law of the Seas, to extend a zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory.
What actually could limit New Zealand's territorial claim was the issue of Fiji's claim to the Minerva reef, a coral outcrop that is also claimed by the kingdom of Tonga. This territorial dispute between Fiji and Tonga had surfaced at the 2005 Commonwealth Summit held in Malta, as a Radio NZ article describes. Whether or not this contentious issue of Minerva, will be discussed at the South Pacific Forum in Tonga is any one's guess.
Tonga will host the 2007 South Pacific Forum and the question of who will attend from Fiji's Interim Government was a matter, raised by Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer in his usual Ad Nauseum style, which was reported by a Fiji Times article.
What prompted Russia to lay claim to this North pole seabed may be the fact that it is an oil-rich region. Oil is perhaps the underlying factor for New Zealand's extension to their continental shelf. New Zealand could use diplomatic avenues to favor one island nation's claim against the other; in order to cement their own seabed claims.
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