U.S. claims to a vast section of the seabed — and the potential resources buried within — have no basis in international law and should be rejected, according to government representatives from Russia and China.
The comments came during a session of the International Seabed Authority in Kingston, Jamaica, in response to recent claims by the United States that would add about 386,100 square miles to its continental shelf in the Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
Countries that have ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea undergo a lengthy international process to reach agreement on where the boundaries of underwater continental shelves lie. Those demarcations are important because exclusive economic rights to potentially lucrative seabed resources are based on them. Russia, Canada and Denmark — on behalf of Greenland — have all filed competing claims to areas in the High Arctic, for example, as climate change opens the region to more sea traffic and exploration.
The U.S. hasn’t ratified the U.N. Convention, and its claims jeopardize a fragile international balance, the representative for Russia said, adding that Russia rejects the United States’ selective approach to international law.
China’s delegate said the U.S. doesn’t have the right to make such claims unilaterally and can’t expect to enjoy the benefits of the convention without having ratified it.
