Abstract. The non-regional countries’ growing interest in the Arctic Ocean’s spaces and resources development is accompanied by their desire to consolidate the Arctic sea area status as the most open one to all countries. Among such projects the proposal to conclude a separate international agreement on the Arctic, like the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, stands out, much as the suggestion to extend the “Common heritage of mankind” status to the entire region. These initiatives to maximize the Arctic’s internationalization hardly conform to the modern international law of the sea norms and logically do not find any support among the majority of Arctic states. Their position is based on the fact that the Arctic Ocean has a number of specifics that demand prioritizing the regional level of cooperation.