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RF submits application to UN to enlarge econ zone in Sea of Okhotsk

The commission is expected to take a final decision at a plenary meeting in the first half of 2014

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

UNITED NATIONS, August 20 (Itar-Tass) Russia has submitted its application to the United Nations to enlarge its 200-mile economic zone by adding a part of the continental shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk, Deputy Natural Resources Minister Denis Khramov told Itar-Tass.

"We have submitted an application for a part of the continental shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk," he said.

The application was officially presented on Friday at the meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Materials were presented to substantiate the viewpoint geophysically and cartographically, the deputy minister said.

A special sub-commission is formed to consider the application. "We will prove our viewpoint and present appropriate evidence to the sub-commission if they have questions. After that, it prepares its conclusion that will be presented to the Commission on the Continental Shelf," Khramov said.

Usually consideration of such applications takes a year. "But we can hope it will be faster," he noted.

The commission is expected to take a final decision at a plenary meeting in the first half of 2014.

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