A leading think tank has forewarned Australia to protect its sovereignty claim over Antarctica, in response to growing interest from countries seeking minerals and other resources.
The warning was issued Aug. 8 in a policy paper released by the Lowy Institute for International Policy in response to China and Russia voicing interest in Antarctica’s potential for minerals and energy. Australia currently claims 42 percent of the continent.
Director of Lowy Institute’s security program, Rory Metcalfe, said the policy paper was a “timely warning” that Australia was failing in its ability to safeguard its interest in Antarctica.
“Australia is at risk of being left behind in a future age of energy and strategic competition in Antarctica,” Mr. Metcalfe said in a media release.
“There is a real chance that the treaty system banning resource exploitation in Antarctica will not last.”
At present, Antarctica is protected from resource exploitation under an international treaty, but after 2048, countries are free to withdraw.
The frozen continent is vulnerable because of Australia’s limited activity there, which is presently based solely on science and environmental issues. Most of the stations on Australia’s claimed territory belong to other nations, including China and Russia, the policy paper notes.
The paper, Antarctica: Assessing and Protecting Australia’s National Interests, urges Canberra to embrace a number of initiatives, including changing the responsibility for the Antarctic from the Environment Department to the Attorney-General’s office, to reflect the growing “security and sovereignty concerns”.
The paper also calls on Canberra to push for international inspections of all countries’ Antarctic stations and to modernise Australia’s three Antarctic stations.
Australia needed to develop a strategic approach to the Antarctic, the Lowy paper says, which should involve military activities in the area and perhaps joint surveillance with New Zealand using unmanned aircraft.
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