Russia Beefs Up Military Presence in Arctic North Pole

Russia vowed on Tuesday to beef up its military presence in the Arctic North Pole after Canada applied to expand its territorial sovereignty into the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in televised remarks, ordered his defence chiefs to focus defending the country's rights into the region.

"I would like you to devote special attention to deploying infrastructure and military units in the Arctic," he said, noting this should be the Russian military's top priority.

Russia was "intensifying the development of that promising region," Mr Putin told his military leaders, stressing it was in this matter that the country needs to have "every lever for the protection of its security and national interests there."

Canada on Monday said it had filed an application before the United Nations which seeks to expand its Atlantic sea boundary way into the Arctic North Pole

Read: Canada Joins Fray for Territorial Sovereignty Over North Pole Arctic Region

Countries are primarily gunning for the region for its vast mineral resources, notably natural gas and oil. Apart from Russia and Canada, Norway, Denmark and the U.S. also want a slice of the region.

Sergei Shoigu, Russian Defence Minister, according to an AFP report, promised Mr Putin immediate compliance to his directives.

"In 2014, we intend to create military units and forces for ensuring the military security and protecting the national interests of the Russian Federation in the Arctic," Mr Shoigu said.

Mr Putin ordered the immediate refurbishment and reinstatement of a number of Arctic military airbases. Some of them became neglected after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Moreover, to add to its existing five-ship fleet, Russia is likewise currently building the world's biggest nuclear icebreaker.

Russia in 2007 made a symbolic claim to the Arctic seabed when it dropped a canister containing the Russian flag from a small submarine at the North Pole's ocean floor.