The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has satisfied Russia's appeal to recognize the Sea of Okhotsk enclave with an area of 52,000 square kilometers in the middle of the Sea of Okhotsk as part of the Russian continental shelf. According to UN statement, the final decision of the Commission was announced to RF Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Sergey Donskoy by UN Legal Council Miguel de Serpa Soares.
In his interview to UN Radio the Minister said that inclusion of the Sea of Okhotsk enclave into the limits of the Russian continental shelf means that Russia now gets exclusive rights for the subsoil and seabed resources. This decision puts the enclave under Russian jurisdiction in terms to requirements on production, safety and environment protection.
Russia first sent a request in 2001 for the entire continental shelf, including the Arctic shelf. In 2004, it was decided to divide the request into two applications. Sergey Donskoy says the Arctic application will be submitted to the Commission in the second half of the current year.
The purpose of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (the Commission or CLCS) is to facilitate the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the Convention) in respect of the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles (M) from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. The Commission shall make recommendations to coastal States on matters related to the establishment of the outer limits of their continental shelf. The limits of the shelf established by a coastal State on the basis of these recommendations shall be final and binding.
The Commission consists of twenty-one members who shall be experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrography.