http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 286 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 10 / 2017 Finally, ice melt in the Arctic would mean the progressive opening up of navigation routes that had hitherto been inaccessible and, hence, a potentially lucrative market29. However, this could also create security issues for the States through which the navigation routes pass. Two of these routes stand out for their strategic importance: the Northern Sea Route (NSR) or the Northeast Passage (NEP) that traverses the Arctic following Russia’s and Norway’s coasts, and the Northwest Passage (NWP) along the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Northern Alaska30. And there is also a third route, known as the Transpolar Sea Route (TSR), that crosses the North Pole, but this is not usually taken into consideration because of the difficulty of breaking and crossing the ice31. The legal status of the NEP and NWP is a matter disputed by the Arctic States. Due to their proximity to Russian and Canadian territory, the latter regard them as inland routes under their sovereignty, basing their claims on the grounds that they are historical waters and the straight line method of delimitation32. The U.S. and the EU, on the other hand, claim they are international waters, access and free passage through which is guaranteed under Article 45 of the UNCLOS33, which safeguards the right to innocent passage.34 Although we are not going to study these disputes in this article, we recommend reading the chapters by Professors Conde35 and Manero36 for a more detailed insight into the legal implications and the various disputes that have arisen. As stated earlier, with these new navigation routes, transport costs and distances between Asia and Europe would be significantly shorter and cheaper than current routes such as the Panama and Suez canals or around the coasts of Africa and the Americas.37 For example, it is estimated that the NWP is 7,000 kilometres shorter than the Panama Canal route connecting Europe and the Far East.38 In addition, shipping traffic is expected to increase in keeping with the trend observed in recent 29 LÓPEZ-IBOR MAYOR, Vicente, MARTÍNEZ MONTES, Luis Francisco, SÁNCHEZ DE ROJAS DÍAZ, Emilio, Apuntes sobre el Ártico, opera prima octubre 2014, p.54. 30 BUIXADÉ FARRÉ, A. et al., Commercial Arctic shipping through the Northeast Passage: Routes, resources, governance, technology, and infrastructure, Polar Geography, Taylor & Francis, 2014, p.2. 31 ØSTRENG, W. et al., Shipping in Arctic Waters: A Comparison of the Northeast, Northwest and Trans Polar Passages, Springer, Berlin, 2013. 32 MANERO SALVADOR, Ana, El deshielo del Ártico: Retos para el Derecho Internacional, Editorial Aranzadi, Thomson Reuters, 2011. p. 94. 33 Article 45, UNCLOS. 34 CONDE, Elena, “Algunas cuestiones jurídico políticas derivadas del proceso del calentamiento global en el Ártico”, La Gobernanza de los Mares y Océanos. Nuevas Realidades, Nuevos Desafíos, Andavira Editora, Scientia Jurídica, Santiago de Compostela, 2012. P.162. 35 Ibid. p.p. 161-165. 36 MANERO, op. cit., p.p. 93-115. 37 EBINGER, Charles K., ZAMBETAKIS, Evie, “The Geopolitics of Arctic Melt”, International Affairs, 85:1215-32, 2009. 38 CONDE, op. cit., p.163.
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