Fred Weir, Moscow correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, commented for Russia Today on the Russian Arctic expedition’s return to Moscow and its scientific achievements.

Russia Today: From your point of view, what is the most important achievement of this expedition: is it  purely scientific or, maybe, is it a political one?

Fred Weir: Well, I guess these things always are both, I mean the scientific aspect of it is really important. I think that probing the seabed underneath the North Pole is really an unprecedented thing and it is important. But I think we all know the urgency of it, the vast resources devoted to it wouldn't have been forthcoming if it did not have that political dimension, and in this way, Russia has very much a stake to claim. It has set the agenda for what is probably a coming division of the North Pole between Arctic powers.

RT: Who else claims a piece of that pie and actually you being a Canadian citizen – what arguments do you think your country might put forward?

F.W.: I am a Canadian and I work for an American newspaper and every Canadian schoolchild grows up seeing the Arctic as our turf. Canada’s future is in the North. And Canada very much regards this as a challenge. The Canadian position is that Russia accomplished nothing – nothing is settled by this stunt that was pulled, because Canada will be putting forward a similar claim, I think, within a few years and it is very possible that, despite the fact that there is an aura of conflict around this, that Canada and Russia, being the two largest northern countries, can work something out in terms of a precedent that extends their territory to the North Pole. Each one on its side.

RT: You have already mentioned that a bit, but how important is the North Pole economically?

F.W.: Well, that remains to be seen. We hear all sorts of figures banded about, but they can only be like wild estimates. Nobody until last week has gone to the sea floor under the North Pole to do any kind of scientific probing and so – we don't know. But quite likely, there is a great deal of oil and gas and other minerals. There is probably fish which is a big resource in today’s world. So, there is probably quite a lot to compete over.

RT: How valuable might the North Pole be in strategic terms?

F.W.: Well, I think that, you know, with global warming opening that up for the first time to the serious possibility of exploitation, it means that everybody is going to be looking at that territory. I don't know whether it will replace the Middle East as the focus of all of our conflicts, but it has a potential for sure.