MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry is planning to file a claim with the UN on expanding Russia’s Arctic shelf territory by partly including the Gakkel Ridge into it, the ministry chief, Sergey Donskoy, told reporters on Thursday.
"We will file [the claim] this year. The necessity for the filing fully justifies itself as it will take certain time to consider the request, and not just one year," the natural resources minister said at a press conference.
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The Russian ministry has already gathered enough evidence to apply to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf and prove its case, Donskoy said.
"In our request, we partly included the Gakkel Ridge into the shelf borders. In any case, we can still make additions to the documents during the consideration of the request at the UN commission. We do not stop at filing and we will monitor the process," he said.
Donskoy said if necessary the ministry would carry out additional work and introduce all the necessary evidence to the commission.
Russia plans to increase its continental shelf in the Arctic by around 1.2 million square kilometers.
In March 2015, state research enterprises, which are subordinated to the Federal Agency on Mineral Resources (Rosnedra) and the Defence Ministry, completed work on a respective draft claim that has been partly revised.