US Senate urged to ratify UN Law of the Sea Convention
Source: Philstar, 4/27/2011
ASP Board Member Richard Armitage is mentioned.
WASHINGTON – At a time when China is flexing its muscles over ownership of disputed territories in the South China Sea, Democrats and Republicans should come together and end decades of dispute over US accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, said American policy advisers in an article.
UNCLOS has been in place for nearly 30 years but there are those in the Senate who vehemently oppose ratification due to concerns the treaty would limit commerce and allow international bodies to wield greater control over US interests.
Thad W. Allen, Richard L. Armitage, and John J. Hamre in an article quoted the Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying ratification makes sense militarily because the convention “codifies navigation and overflight rights and high seas freedoms that are essential for the global mobility of our armed forces.”
In other words, it enhances national security by giving the US Navy additional flexibility to operate on the high seas and in foreign exclusive economic zones and territorial seas.
“This is particularly important in the Asia Pacific region and the South China Sea, where tensions among China, Japan and Southeast Asian nations have increased because of conflicting interpretations of what constitutes territorial and international waters,” they wrote.
The article appeared as an op-ed in the New York Times on Sunday and was published on Monday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a conservative-oriented foreign policy think tank headquartered in Washington.
