ABSTRACT
Maritime navigation along the difficult Arctic routes is mainly based on the use of powerful ice-breakers, the most important of these being nuclear vessels. Systematic scientific research conducted by Arctic and other states is being intensified to provide basic marine data. The industrial and population centres of both superpowers lie on a north-south course across the North Pole, thus providing ‘missile avenues’ for intercontinental ballistic weapons. The large continental shelf of the Barents Sea has been the object of protracted delimitation talks between Norway and the Soviet Union since 1967 and there is little prospect of a solution in future. Negotiations have been intermittent since 1981. The Soviet Union exercises sovereign rights over the continental shelf according to a decree of 1968. This decree applies to submarine areas adjacent to the coast, or to islands, to a depth of 200 m or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits the exploitation of natural resources.
