Canada Monitoring Arctic Voyages by American and Soviet Submarines

Canada is monitoring U.S. and Soviet submarines in Arctic waters but will not discuss details for security reasons, External Affairs Minister Joe Clark said Wednesday.

He also declined to say whether Canada has given permission for such voyages or whether three U.S. nuclear submarines used the disputed Northwest Passage on a voyage to the North Pole last May.

Clark, responding to opposition party questioning over whether Canadian sovereignty was being protected in the Arctic, told the House of Commons that the government watches the movements of submarines of both superpowers.

He refused to say where such information came from.

Clark also said he was less confident about the routes taken by Soviet submarines under Arctic waters.

“We are prepared to defend Canada,” he said, adding that a planned polar-class icebreaker will be used to help assert Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.

The question of Arctic sovereignty heated up last year when the U.S. icebreaker Polar Sea traveled the Northwest Passage, touching off a diplomatic dispute over whether the passage is Canadian territory or an international strait, as claimed by the United States.

Talks between Ottawa and Washington are continuing, although the Progressive Conservative government has held off taking the dispute to the World Court.

Clark also said he sent a note of protest to Washington on Wednesday over proposed drilling by U.S. oil companies in the Beaufort Sea. Clark said Canada has asked the United States to put such drilling plans on hold until the two countries settle a dispute over which country’s territory is affected.