Office of the Historian

279. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Sisco) to Secretary of State Rusk1

Washington, September 4, 1968.

SUBJECT

  • UN Seabeds Committee completes work

The UN Ad Hoc Committee on the Seabeds concluded its work at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro which ended August 30.2 Appreciable progress [Page 715] was registered in major areas of U.S. concern. The work done by the Ad Hoc Committee has thrown basic issues into sharp relief and has educated Committee members on the hard conflicts of interest which must be resolved before comprehensive international cooperation on the seabed can become a reality.

The major accomplishments of the Rio Session were as follows:

1.
Utilizing the formula you worked out with Secretary Clifford,3 we were able to join all other members in affirming the principle that the deep seabed should be reserved exclusively for peaceful purposes. We made it clear that it was for the ENDC to take up specific deep seabed arms control measures such as our denuclearization proposal.
2.
Through intensive effort we did much to overcome underdeveloped country suspicion of our motives in proposing an International Decade of Ocean Exploration. The Committee welcomed and generally supported the Decade, as an element in long-term UN programs.
3.
With unusually solid cooperation from a Western Group, including Japan and Australia, we succeeded in obtaining the support of a number of Asians and Africans for a statement of bedrock legal principles which might govern the exploration and use of the deep seabed. Nevertheless the Latin Americans remained immovable in the light of their fears that their 200-mile claims would be adversely affected, and the Soviet Bloc was unexpectedly rigid in refusing to endorse any principles. The Western formulation will be a starting point for future UN work in this area.
4.
There was virtually complete consensus for a Standing Committee to work toward internationally agreed arrangements which will permit the orderly development of the seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction in the interest of the international community.

We are now preparing for General Assembly discussion of the Seabed Committee report. We will attempt to persuade Assembly members that real progress can only be made in this matter by proceeding through consensus rather than numerical majorities. We will stress that this is the only alternative to an open split between underdeveloped and advanced countries, which would frustrate the whole exercise.

Dave Popper headed the U.S. Delegation at Rio. Leonard Meeker represented us on legal matters, and Dr. Vincent McKelvey of the Geological Survey, on technical matters.

  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 72 A 1498, 388.3, August-December 1968. Confidential. Drafted by David H. Popper (IO) on September 4.↩
  2. Regarding the formation and early work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Seabed, see footnote 2, Document 270. For text of the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee, August 30, which also summarizes developments at the conference in Rio de Janeiro, see Documents on Disarmament, 1968, pp. 595-615.↩
  3. See Document 270.↩