U.S. Leadership in the World and the Law
of the Sea
Law of the Sea Clears Committee
On October 31, 2007, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee overwhelmingly approved the Law of the Sea Convention, sending it to the full Senate for ratification. The vote was 17-4, without any amendments or new conditions. Foreign Relations Committee Republican leader Dick Lugar encouraged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule floor consideration as quickly as possible.
Read Senator Lugar's October 31 statement
On September 27 and October 4 2007, Senator Lugar participated in Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the Law of the Sea.
Read Senator Lugar's September 24 statement
Read Senator Lugar's October 4 statement
In April 2007, Senator Lugar and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden asked President Bush to reiterate his support for the treaty.
On May 15, 2007, Senator Lugar wrote an essay on the importance of moving quickly on the Law of the Sea Treaty.
Also on May 15, the White House released a statement from President Bush urging the Senate to act favorably on U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Treaty during this session of Congress. The treaty also has the strong support of the U.S. Navy.
The basic tenets of the treaty have been
U.S. policy since first enunciated by President Reagan
in 1982. Over the next dozen years the U.S. won in negotiations
on the questionable aspects of the treaty, and signed
on in 1994. The details are in the President's
Message transmitting the treaty to the Senate . In October 2003, Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Dick Lugar held two comprehensive hearings on
the treaty. The full transcripts of those hearings are
part of the 187-page committee
report .
In the 109th Congress, Secretary of State
Dr. Condoleezza Rice made
a strong endorsement of the Law of the Sea Treaty
at her confirmation hearing on January 18, 2005. In addition,
Chairman Lugar submitted questions
for the record to Dr. Rice to follow-up on the Law
of the Sea. In her responses, she expresses, among other
points, that the Administration supports ratification
and how the treaty will benefit national security, the
economy, the military, the prevention of weapons of mass
destruction proliferation and the Proliferation Security
Initiative.
Please check back often as additional
information will be added.
Lugar wrote in the March 8, 2004 issue
of Navy Times: “Imagine if a U.S. Naval Task
Force, rushing from the Persian Gulf to a crisis on the
Korean peninsula, had to take a 3,000-mile detour around
Indonesia. Imagine if Iran barred all foreign tankers
from the Straits of Hormuz, through which passes much
of America’s foreign oil. Or think of the consequences
if Russian fishing trawlers lingered off the Alaskan coast
and plundered millions of tons of salmon swimming home
to American waters.
“The good news is there is a treaty,
the Convention on the Law of the Sea, that can provide
the United States with legal protections against such
events. This wide-ranging treaty, ratified by 143 countries,
has been called by the former Chief of Naval Operations,
Admiral James Watkins, ‘the foundation of public
order of the oceans.’ It can help ensure that our
Navy ships and submarines can navigate freely to defend
America’s national security, that our cargo vessels
and tankers have access to all the world’s sea lanes,
and that we can control the vast riches up to 200 miles
off our shores—and in some cases beyond—including
the huge schools of fish in the ocean and the oil and
gas that lie underneath it.
“The bad news is that the United
States cannot currently rely on these protections because
it isn’t a party to the treaty. Even though it was
negotiated with U.S. leadership and signed nine years
ago, the United States has not yet ratified it. This could
put some of our hard-won guarantees at risk in the future,”
Lugar wrote.
The treaty has broad and strong support
including the Bush Administration, the U.S. Navy, environmentalists,
international oil and shipping industries, the fishing
industry as well as ocean conservationists, and international
law enforcement and antiterrorism organizations.
“Our hearings revealed broad support
for U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention. They
also revealed the need for U.S. accession to be completed
swiftly. The Convention comes open for amendment for the
first time later this year. If the United States is not
party to the Convention at that time, our ability to protect
Convention rights that we fought hard to achieve will
be significantly diminished. In addition, the Convention’s
Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will
soon be making decisions on claims to continental shelf
areas that could impact the United States’ own claims.
Full U.S. participation in this process requires us to
be party to the Convention,” said Lugar.
“Representatives from the Departments
of State, Defense, and the U.S. Coast Guard expressed
the Administration’s strong support for U.S. ratification
of the Convention. They testified that the Convention
advances U.S. national security by providing enhanced
protections for the rights of navigation and overflight
across the world’s oceans that our military relies
on to protect U.S. interests abroad. They also noted that
the Convention advances U.S. economic interests by enshrining
the right of the United States to explore and exploit
the living and non-living resources of the oceans out
to 200 miles from our shore, as well as the resources
of our continental shelf beyond 200 miles. In addition,
they observed that the Convention advances U.S. interests
in the protection of the environment by addressing pollution
of the marine environment from a variety of sources and
providing a framework for the conclusion of further agreements
to protect and conserve the marine environment. Importantly,
the Administration noted that the U.S. law and practice
with respect to regulation of activities off our shores
is already generally compatible with the Convention. Thus,
acceding to the Convention should not require the United
States to make any changes in this regard,” Lugar
said.
“The Committee also heard from
a distinguished panel of experts on oceans law and policy,
and from industry representatives and other groups interested
in the uses of the oceans. Our panel of oceans experts
emphasized the importance of U.S. membership in the Convention
to our ability to exercise leadership over global oceans
policy. They noted that if we remained outside the treaty,
we would forfeit our seat at the table of institutions
that will make decisions about the use of the oceans,
and we would increase the chance that such decisions would
be contrary to our interests,” Lugar said.
“The U.S. Commission on Oceans
Policy adopted a unanimous resolution supporting U.S.
accession to the Law of the Sea Convention as its first
policy pronouncement upon taking up its work. Representatives
of the energy, commercial shipping, and fishing industries
expressed their support for the Convention and the protection
and legal certainty it provides for rights on which their
businesses depend. Representatives of the environmental
community also expressed their strong support for the
Convention and the comprehensive framework it provides
for the development of measures to protect the marine
environment,” Lugar said.
“The Committee staff has worked
closely with the Administration on a resolution of advice
and consent. I am grateful to Senator Biden and his staff,
as well as to the Administration team – which included
representatives from the Departments of State, Defense,
Justice, Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency,
and the U.S. Coast Guard – for their constructive
work on this resolution. In addition, Senator Stevens
testified before our Committee on behalf of the Convention
and helped us refine aspects of the resolution dealing
with fishing. I also want to recognize the commitment
and leadership of a former Chairman of this Committee,
Senator Claiborne Pell. Our current examination of the
treaty benefits greatly from his contributions,”
Lugar said.
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