Russia Discovers Five New Islands in Arctic

Date: 31 August 2019 - 21:32

News ID: ۶۹۹۶۴

MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- A Russian Arctic expedition has mapped five new islands in the country’s north, three years after a student spotted them in satellite imagery.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said in a statement that naval and civilian scientists recently took part in an expedition to the five newly discovered islands, where "topographic surveys were conducted".
"A topographic survey has been conducted on the new islands,” the statement said. "They’ve been described in detail and photographed.”
The islands — located on the coast of the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean — are created as a result of melting glaciers.
Their size ranges from 900 square meters to 54,500 square meters, according to defense officials.
Russian student, Marina Migunova, discovered the islands when she was onboard a Russian Navy research vessel during a voyage through Arctic waters in late 2016.
Russia has lately been increasing its presence in the Arctic as melting ice opens shipping lanes and reveals incredible riches.
Last week, it launched the world’s first floating nuclear power plant to a remote Siberian town near the US state of Alaska.
The vessel, Akademik Lomonosov, is now heading for Chukotka in the Far East, along the Northern Sea Route.
Back in April, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward a program to build ports and other infrastructure in the Arctic and expand its icebreaker fleet.
He said at the time that Russia plans to dramatically increase cargo shipments across the Arctic sea route.
Putin pointed out that the amount of cargo carried across the shipping lane is set to increase from 20 million metric tons last year to 80 million tons in 2025.
"This is a realistic, well-calculated and concrete task,” Putin said. "We need to make the Northern sea route safe and commercially feasible.”
The U.S., in the meantime, was planning what it dubbed as "freedom of navigation” operations — similar to those in the South China Sea— to increase its presence in the North Atlantic and Arctic.
President Donald Trump also floated the idea of purchasing Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory, which is located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
China, as anther world power, on the other hand is not currently planning for a military presence in the region. It has, instead, focused on energy and resources, via investment in Arctic countries.
Beijing is prospecting for minerals in Greenland and has agreed a free-trade deal with Iceland to increase fish imports.