Ratify Law of the Sea

Foreign Policy Priorities in the FY2011 International Affairs Budget
Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Foreign Policy Priorities in the FY2011 International Affairs Budget

Secretary Clinton:
“At the same time, we are developing a new architecture of cooperation to meet transnational global challenges like climate change and the use of our planet’s oceans. With regard to the latter, I want to reiterate my support for U.S. accession to the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Our country stands to gain immensely from this treaty. Everything we know from what we are picking up with respect to other countries’ use of the tools under the Law of the Sea demonstrates that we will lose out, in economic and resource rights, in terms of environmental interests, and national security.”

Senator Lugar:
“I appreciate your mention of the Law of the Sea treaty. I’ve just come from a conference with regard to Russia and Russian aspirations. It was pointed out that with the melting of the Arctic, now huge oil resources, perhaps larger than those of Saudi Arabia, have been uncovered. The Russians immediately sent a ship up and planted a flag. This was a grandiose gesture. It doesn’t establish that they’re going to be drilling shortly. But the fact is that this is going to be an area of huge contention, and the need to have some structure in which American interests can come to the fore, the issue has always been sovereignty with regard to that. And sovereignty is the issue, but we’ve got to pin down our sovereignty.”

Secretary Clinton:
“Thank you for what you said about the Law of the Sea. I could not agree with you more. The Law of the Sea provides commercial rights to the mining of what is in the sea beds of the territories that are claimable under sovereignty provisions in the treaty. I believe with all my heart that we are going to be so sorry if we don’t get this up and going, and I know that you and the Chairman are committed to doing so. And if there’s more that we need to do from the Administration side, Mr. Chairman, I will get it done. You just – you give me the date and we’ll have the people here to testify, because I want everybody on the committee and the Congress to know what’s at stake here.”

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Just what is at stake if the U.S. fails to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea? According to Karen Erickson, a voice in decisions that affect major political, economic, and security interests.

Foster’s Daily Democrat – Karen Erickson, Dean, School of Liberal Arts Southern New Hampshire University Manchester

“For more than two decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have supported ratification of UNCLOS, but the U.S. Senate has not acted. The Senate must act now to meet increasingly urgent national needs.

What is at stake for the U. S.? By joining UNCLOS, the U.S. will forward longtime vital interests to secure freedom of navigation and also to control its coastal activities. UNCLOS protects military and commercial navigation and overflight, and passage through international straits, all essential for the Armed Forces and national security.

UNCLOS is the framework for establishing claims to offshore resources and the deep seabed. The stakes are high. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil north of the Arctic Circle, which constitutes 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil. On top of that, they estimate that the region contains 20 percent of Earth’s remaining undiscovered natural gas and 30 percent of the liquid natural gas. Alaska accounts for 20 percent of domestic oil production but adherence to UNCLOS could increase drastically U.S. rights to seabed oil and natural gas, thereby securing our unparalleled exclusive economic zone of 3.36 million square miles.”
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Op-ed by three renowned ocean experts on the opportunity for international cooperation posed by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The News and Observer – Paul Arthur Berkman, Kenneth S. Yalowitz and Oran R. Young

“The United States has vital interests in the Arctic Ocean, given Alaska’s location and the impact of climate change in the far north on the world’s environment, natural resources, population and security. The United States needs to assert leadership now to promote ecologically sound, productive and peaceful management of the Arctic Ocean. U.S. ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the urgent first step in this regard but it should be accompanied by an initiative to make the central Arctic Ocean a peaceful preserve for all humankind.”

Paul Arthur Berkman is head of the Arctic Ocean Geopolitics Programme at Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge. Kenneth S. Yalowitz is director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College. Oran R. Young is professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara.

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