US, Canada to negotiate maritime border in Beaufort Sea By Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and Canada said on Tuesday they would create a task force this fall to negotiate the maritime border in the Beaufort Sea and resolve overlap along the continental shelf.

The group will work on a final agreement covering the border area, which lies north of Alaska and the Canadian provinces of Yukon and Northwest Territories, the two countries said.

The talks come amid increased cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic Sea, where they are pursuing mineral resources and new sea routes opened up by melting ice amid rising temperatures.

The Beaufort Sea dispute between Canada and the United States is a long-standing disagreement over the maritime boundary off the coast of Yukon and Alaska, an ecologically sensitive region that has several oil and gas deposits.

The border dispute has its roots in the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1825, which was inherited by the United States in 1867 and Canada in 1880. The two countries have different interpretations of the treaty’s meaning.

The US government unveiled moves last year to make nearly 3 million acres in the area “indefinitely off limits” to oil and gas leasing as President Joe Biden tried to balance his goals to decarbonize the economy USA and preserving pristine wilderness.

The administration’s action built on an Obama-era ban and effectively closed US Arctic waters to oil exploration.