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Foreign Ministry: Sea of Okhotsk enclave now Russian

MOSCOW, March 18,  /ITAR-TASS/. Russian application for an enclave in the central Sea of Okhotsk with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has been fully satisfied, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Monday.

On March 11 the commission acting under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea “unanimously approved the Russian Federation’s statement on the continental shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk”.

“The Commission has entirely agreed with the technical and legal reasoning behind the application,” said the ministry. “According to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea shelf borders determined by coastal states as recommended by the Commission are ultimate and obligatory for everybody.”

The area in question is a piece of the continental shelf of 52,000 square kilometres located beyond 200 nautical miles from the Russian coast. The area is estimated to be rich in valuable minerals whose mining is from now on Russia’s exclusive right.