Peaceful Uses of the Seabed (Hansard, 12 July 1971)

HC Deb 12 July 1971 vol 821 cc19-20 19

§ 7. Mr. Peter Archer
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish as a White Paper the proposals which he plans to advance at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of the Seabed in relation to the entrenched rights of coastal States within the proposed trusteeship area.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Anthony Kershaw)
No, Sir. As my hon. Friend the Joint Under-Secretary said in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Mr. Dodds-Parker) on 10th May, much detailed work remains to be done on this subject and it would not be feasible to set out our ideas in full in a a White Paper. But I will, with permission, circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT an outline of what our general attitude will be to the position of coastal States in relation to the trusteeship area.—[Vol. 817, c. 27.]

§ Mr. Archer
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that information. Does the Answer of 10th May mean that the Government propose that, in addition to sovereign rights over territorial waters, there shall be entrenched rights over the area beyond? Is that not abdicating international control over two-thirds of the earth's surface, which is already potentially an arsenal, a gold mine and a sewer?

§ Mr. Kershaw
No, Sir. I do not think that that is fair. We support the principle that the resources of the seabed should be 20 regarded as a common heritage. We believe that the trusteeship concept, which we support, will give rights both to coastal States and to the international community, which is not inconsistent with that principle.

Following is the information : We consider that the entrenched rights of the coastal States within the trusteeship area must include all necessary jurisdiction over such matters as the licensing of activities in connection with the exploration and exploitation of the resources of the area and the supervision and legal protection of such activities. There are a number of aspects of the United States draft Sea Bed Convention, in which the trusteeship concept was proposed, on which the British Government would wish to put forward other proposals. These would be based on the contents of the working paper tabled by the United Kingdom at the August 1970 Session of the United Nations Sea Bed Committee. It will be remembered that the United States Government introduced their draft as a basis for discussion and expressly stated that it did not necessarily represent their definitive views.