§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they recognise any of the Arctic Seas—that is the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi Seas—as "historically belonging to the USSR" and therefore to be deemed "internal waters", from the outer limit of which "territorial waters" of twelve miles and an "exclusive economic zone" of 200 miles would be claimed by the Soviet Union; and, if they do not, whether they will urgently recall this fact to the Soviet Union, which is in process of delineating the "state boundary of the USSR" in the Arctic Ocean, and appears to claim under its "Law on the State Boundary of the USSR, "which entered into force March 1st 1983 (Article 6(iv))"…seas and straits, historically belonging to the USSR" as "internal waters".
§ Baroness YoungThe legislation which came into force in 1983 substantially follows the legislation of 1960. The United Kingdom protested against the 1960 Decree and we shall not be inhibited from making similar observations in future if official Soviet assertions of territorial claims are in our view contrary to international law. But the exact limits of Soviet claims to waters along the Arctic coast have not been stated by the Soviet authorities and we are therefore unable at present to take a view on the question of how far they may be in accordance with international law.