THE LAW OF THE SEA: A TEST OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82S00697R000400140048-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 1, 2002
• Sequence Number: 48
• Publication Date: April 8, 1976
• Content Type: SPEECH

0140048-9
WK0
April 8, 1976
No. 162
As Prepared for Delivery
N ~/-F la.
ADDRESS BY
THE HONORABLE HENRY A. KISSINGER
SECRETARY OF STATE
BEFORE THE
FOREIGN POLICY A330CIATIOP?
U.S. COUNCIL OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
AND U,N, ASSOCIATION OF THE U.S.A.
PIERRE HOTEL
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
APRIL 8, 1976
THE LAW OF THE SEA: A TEST OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 1:30 P.M. E.S.T. THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1976. NOT TO BE PREVIOUSLY
PUBLISHED, QUOTED FROM OR USED IN ANY WAY.
State Dept. declassification & release instructions on file
2/09/03: CIA-RDP82S00697R000400140048-9
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PR #162
I want to speak to you today about one of the most important international
negotiations that has ever taken place - the global conference now underway
here in New York on the Law of the Sea. Last summer in Montreal I set forth
a comprehensive United States program to help bring matters at this year's
Conference to a rapid and successful conclusion. Today I will offer new
proposals which address the remaining important issues before us, so that
this great negotiation may lead to a final result this year.
For we live in an age when the accelerating forces of modern life - tech-
nological, economic, social and political - are leading the peoples of the
world into unprecedented and interrelated areas of human activity. New
prospects are opening before us - fraught with potential for international
contention, but filled as well with the hope of unparalleled human advance-
ment.
The principal problems which all nations face today are truly global in
nature. They transcend geographic and political boundaries. Their complexity
eludes the conventional solutions of the past, and their pace outstrips the
measured processes of traditional diplomacy. There is the imperative of
peace - the familiar but vastly more urgent requirements of maintaining
global stability, resolving conflicts, easing tensions; these issues dominate
the agenda of relations between East and West. And there are the new
challenges of the world's economy and of cooperative solutions to such inter-
national problems as food, energy, population, trade and the environment.
These are the agenda of the modern period, particularly in the evolving
relationship between the developed and the developing nations.
In an international order composed of sovereign states, the precondition
of effective policy is security. But security, while essential, is not
enough. The American people will never be satisfied with a world whose
stability depends on a balance of terror constantly contested.
Therefore, side by side with seeking to maintain the security of free
countries, the United States has striven to build a new world based on cooper-
ation. We are convinced that our common progress requires nations to
acknowledge their interdependence and act out of a sense of community. Therefore,
at the Seventh Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in
September of last year we made a major effort to project our vision of a
more positive future. We sought to mobilize collaboration on a global scale
on many current issues of economic development. We were gratified by the
response to our initiatives. We are prepared to accelerate our effort.
Virtually all major elements of this new age of interdependence are involved
in one of the great issues of our time: the question of mankind's use of
the oceans. In no area are the challenges more complex or the stakes higher.
No other common effort holds so much positive hope for the future relation-
ship between rich nations and poor over the last quarter of this century and
beyond.
Today I want to speak to you about the urgency of this issue. The Law of
the Sea negotiations now are at a critical stage. There have been many
successes, but they will prove stillborn unless all the remaining issues are
settled soon. The United States believes that if the present session does
not complete its work, another - and final - session should be assembled
this summer. If the negotiations are not completed this year the world will
have lost its best chance to achieve a treaty in this generation.
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I want to focus today upon the most important problems remaining before
the Conference to speed their solution. I shall set forth proposals which
in our view can serve as the basis for a widely accepted treaty.
The Importance of the Oceans
Most issues in international affairs impinge on our consciousness in the form
of crisis; but many of the most important problems which crucially affect
our future come to us far less dramatically. The world is undergoing funda-
mental economic, technological and social transformations which do not dominate
the daily headlines. Some of them are even more profound in their consequences
than most immediate political crises. In no area is this more true than the
oceans, a realm which covers 70 percent of the earth's surface.
Freedom of the seas remains basic to the security and well--b.einq of most
nations. The seaborne commerce of the globe is expected to quadruple within
a few decades. The reliance of. the world's people upon the seas to carry
food and energy is increasing. Modern technology has enabled industries
to sweep the seas for fish and to probe the ocean's floor for vital minerals
and resources. Mankind's growing dependence on the seas, and the burgeoning
world population along their shores, are already burdening the ecology of
the oceans - a development of potentially catastrophic significance, for
the oceans are the very source of life as we know it, the characteristic
distinguishing our world from all other planets.
These developments have brought with them a vast array of competitive
practices and claims, which - unless they are harmonized - threaten an era
of unrestrained commercial rivalry, mounting political turmoil, and eventually
military conflict. We stand in danger of repeating with respect to the oceans
the bitter rivalries that have produced endless conflict on land.
A cooperative international regime to govern the use of the oceans and their
resources is therefore an urgent necessity. It is, as well, an unprecendented
opportunity for the nations of the world to devise the first truly global
solution to a global problem. And the opportunity is all the greater because
we start with a clean slate.
Thus, the multilateral effort to agree upon a comprehensive treaty on the
Law of the Sea has implications beyond the technical problems of the use of
the oceans. It touches upon basic issues underlying the long-term stability
and prosperity of our globe. The current negotiation is a milestone in the
struggle to submit man's endeavors to the constraints of international law.
- In a world of growing scarcity, the oceans hold untapped riches
of minerals and energy. For example, it is estimated that 40 percent
of the world's petroleum and virtually inexhaustible supplies of minerals
lie beneath the sea. Our economic growth and technological progress will
be greatly affected by the uses made of these resources.
- In a world where the growth of population threatens to overwhelm
the earth's capacity to produce food, the fish of the seas are an in-
creasingly precious - and endangered -- source of protein. The well-
being and indeed the very survival of future generations may well
depend upon whether mankind can halt the present wanton depletion of
this vast storehouse of nutrition.
In a world in which the health of the planet our children will
inherit depends upon decisions we make today, the environmental integrity
of the oceans - which affects the quality of life everywhere - is vital.
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- And in a world still buffeted by national conflicts, economic con--
frontation and political strife, the free and fair use of the oceans is
crucial to future peace and progress.
The oceans are not merely the repository of wealth and promise; they are,
as well, the last completely untamed frontier of our planet. As such, their
potential -- for achievement or for strife - is vast. In the nineteenth
century, the Industrial, Revolution gave birth to improved communications,
technological innovations and new forms of business organization which im-
measurably expanded man's capacity to exploit the frontiers and territories
of the entire globe. In less than one generation, one-fifth of the land area
of the planet and one-tenth of its inhabitants were gathered into the domain
of imperial powers in an unrestrained scramble for colonies. The costs -
in affront to human dignity, in material waste and deprivation, and in military
conflict and political turbulence - haunt us still..
Like the non-Western lands of a century before, today it is the oceans which
suddenly are accessible to new technology and alluring to exploration. Their
promise may be even greater than the untapped lands of the century past. So
too is their potential for conflict. The decision will be ours. The inter-
national community now stands at the threshold of what can easily turn into a
new period of unheralded competitive activity. It is our contention that the
nations of the world cannot afford to indulge in another round of unrestrained
struggle for the wealth of our planet when the globe is already burdened by
ideological. strife and thermonuclear weapons.
The United States could survive such competition better than other nations;
and should it be necessary, we are prepared to defend our interests. Indeed,
we could gain a great deal unilaterally in the near term. But we would do so
in an environment of constant and mounting conflict. All nations, including
our own, ultimately would lose under such unpredictable and dangerous conditions.
That is not the kind of world we want to see. Our preference is to help
build a rational and cooperative structure of international conduct to usher
in a time of peace and progress for all peoples. We see the oceans as a trust
which this generation holds - not only for all mankind, but for future
generations as well.
The legacy of history makes this a difficult task. For centuries, the songs
and legends of peoples everywhere. have seen the oceans as the very symbol
of escape from boundaries, convention and restraint. The oceans have beckoned
mankind to rewards of wealth and power, which awaited those brave and imagina-
tive enough to master the forces of nature.
in the modern era the international law of the sea has been dominated by a
simple but fundamental principle. - freedom of the seas. Beyond a narrow
belt of territorial waters off the shores of coastal states, it has long
been established and universally accepted that the seas were free to all. for
fishing and navigation.
Today the simple rules of the past are challenged. Pressure on available
food, fuel and other resources has heightened awareness of the ocean's
potential. The reach of technology and modern communications have tempted
nations to seek to exercise control over ocean areas to a degree unimagined
in the past. Thus coastal states have begun to assert jurisdictional claims
far out to sea --? claims which unavoidably conflict with the established law
and with the practices of others, and which have brought a pattern of almost
constant international conflict. Off the shores of nearly every continent,
forces of coastal states challenge foreign fishing vessels: the "Cod War"
between Iceland and Great Britain; tuna boat seizures off South America;
Soviet trawling off New England -- these are but some examples.
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It is evident that there is no alternative to chaos but a new global regime
defining an agreed set of rules and procedures. The problem of the oceans
is inherently international. No unilateral or national solution is likely
to prevail without continual conflict. The Law of the Sea Conference presents
the nations of the world with their choice and their opportunity. Failure to
agree is certain to bring further, more intense confrontation, as the nations
of the world - now numbering some 150 - go all out to extend unilateral claims.
These are the reasons why the international community has engaged itself in a
concentrated effort to devise rules to govern the domain of the oceans. Sub-
stantive negotiations on a Law of the Sea Treaty began in 1974 in Caracas;
a second session was held in Geneva last year. Now, here in New York, work
is underway aimed at concluding a treaty before this year is out.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most significant: nego-
t.iations in diplomatic history. The United States approaches this negotiation
with conviction that we simply cannot afford to fail.
Progress to Date
The issues before the Law of the Sea Conference cover virtually every area
and aspect of man's uses of the seas, from the coastline to the farthest
deep seabed. Like the oceans themselves, these various issues are interr.e.l.ated.
parts of a single entity.. Without agreement on all the issues, actreern nt on piny
will be empty, for nations will not accept a partial solution - all the less
.so as some of the concessions that have been made were based on the expecta-
tion of progress on the issues which are not yet solved.
Significant progress has been made on many key problems. Most prominent
among them are:
- First, the extent of the territorial seas, and the related issue
of free transit through straits. The Conference has already reached wide-
-sprea - agreement on extending the territorial sea - the area where a nation
exercises full sovereignty - to 12 miles. Even more importantly, there is
substantial agreement on guaranteed unimpeded transit through and over straits
used for international navigation. This is of crucial importance, for it
meens that the straits whose use is most vital to international commerce
and global security - such as the Straits of Gibraltar and Malacca -? will
remain open to international sea and air transit. This is a principle to
which the United States attaches the utmost importance.
- Second, the degree of control that a coastal state can exercise in
the adjaceent o s ore area beyond its territoria waters. This is the so-
called economic zone," in which lie some of the world's most important
fishing grounds as well as major deposits of oil, gas and minerals. Growin