John Mero, a California expert who is developing ocean-mining technology on contract for firms in six countries (including Atlantic Richfield, Inco, Phelps Dodge, Superior Oil and U.S. Steel), claims his mechanisms of synthetic rope and dredge buckets can lift nodules for $10 a ton. By contrast, German engineers have developed a vacuum process estimated at $68. John Shaw, who heads the Inco consortium, was probably closest to the truth when he said, "Mining costs right now are nearly unknown.” These uncertainties are compounded by another: Will current metal prices hold for years to come? If they do and if total operating costs are under $50 a ton, then a pioneer ocean miner could make 30% a year on his investment. If not, he could lose his shirt. Beyond the economic mountains are political ones. For the past three years United Nations negotiators have been haggling their way toward an international treaty to control development of the oceans. Since over 125 countries are involved, progress has been slow. Without a treaty, however, the oceans are a political noman's-land. U.S. Steel can start mining royalty-free in the South Pacific today-but it has no exclusive right to any unusually rich deposits it may discover. And any subsequent ocean treaty could impose a new costs on its operations. Potential U.S. ocean miners have been asking Congress for protection against those risks since 1971. They don't want gunboats or government subsidies—only the ability to buy insurance against piracy or sabotage, and a guarantee of reinbursement if the United States should later sign a treaty requiring them to pay anything above domestic tax rates to a world body. With landlocked producer nations-like Zaire and Zambia-pressing for international control of seabeds, that legislation recently passed key hurdles in Congress. Potential unilateral U.S. action, however, doesn't please Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He hopes that ocean mining concessions will help the United States win on other negotiating points like free access to all shipping lanes. "It's shameful that our Government is so anxious to try and get a treaty that we're even willing to cut off a new source of mineral supply, says James Johnston, an economist and disgruntled former delegate to the United Nations Law of the Sea sessions. An Inco man sums up: "We know we're going to have to give up 50% of our profits to somebody, either as domestic taxes or as an international royalty." What the industry really wants, however, is to get moving. Secretary Henry A. Kissinger before the Foreign Policy Association, U.S. Council of the International Chamber of Commerce, and the U.N. Association of the U.S.A. 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 on August 11] in Montreal I set forth a comprehensive U.S. 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-technological, 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 advancement. 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 international problems as food, energy, popu lation, 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 maintam the security of free countries, the United States has striven to build a new world based on cooperation. 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 UN. 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 relationship 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 suc cesses, 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 nego tiations are not completed this year the world will have lost its best chance to achieve a treaty in this generation. 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 fundamental 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-being 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 unprecedented 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. Let us understand more precisely what is at stake: 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 re sources. of 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 increasingly precious-and endangered--source 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. • And in a world still buffeted by national conflicts, economic confrontation, 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 19th century the Industrial Revolution gave birth to improved communications, technological innovations, and new forms of business organization which immeasurably expanded man's capacity to exploit the frontiers and territories of the entire globe. In less than one generation onefifth 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 explo ration. 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 international 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 condi tions. 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 imaginative 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 seaclaims 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 Englandthese are but some examples. 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. The Law of the Sea Conference 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. Substantive 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 negotiations 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 interrelated parts of a single entity. Without agreement on all the issues, agreement on any 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 expectation 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 widespread agree. ment 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 means 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 prin |