71 



prohibition than the 12-mile zone proposed by the Soviet Union. 

 However, the minor disagreements were not misurmountable. On 

 July 3 President Nixon sent a message to the Disarmament Commit- 

 tee stating that it should not be impossible to find common ground 

 between the United States and the Soviet Union in spite of these dif- 

 ferences, and that the goal should be to present a sound proposal to 

 the United Nations- 



An acceptable proposal came after a full discussion of the two 

 drafts in the form of a joint draft treaty submitted by the United 

 States and the Soviet Union on October 7, 1969. The draft was a 

 compromise between the positions of the two major powers. It pro- 

 vided that : 



The states parties to this treaty undertake not to emplant or emplace on the 

 seabed and the ocean floor and in the subsoil thereof beyond the maximum 

 contiguous zone provided for in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Territorial 

 Sea and the Contiguous Zone any objects with nuclear weapons or any other 

 types of weapons of mass destruction, as well as structures, launching installa- 

 tions or any other facilities specifically designed for storing, testing or using 

 such weapons. 



Later in October, an amended version was submitted at the Geneva 

 Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD, formerly 

 known as the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee — ENDC), 

 now having 26 member nations. This draft was referred by the Gen- 

 eral Assembly back to the CCD as the "Draft Treaty on the Prohibi- 

 tion of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of 

 Mass Destruction on the Seabed and Ocean Floor and Subsoil 

 Thereof." 



Except for minor changes, the definition of the scope of the prohi- 

 bition remained unaltered in the revised version submitted on April 

 23, 1970. Strong pressure was applied by the non-aligned nations, 

 which set out amendments resulting in the adoption in the Septem- 

 ber 1, 1970, revision of a separate article reading: 



The parties to this treaty undertake to continue negotiations in good faith 

 concerning further measures in the field of disarmament for the prevention of 

 an arms race on the sea-bed, the ocean floor, and the subsoil thereof. 



On December 7, 1970, the General x\ssembly of the United Nations 

 finally recommended the treaty. On February 12, 1971, ceremonies 

 were held simultaneously in Washington, Moscow, and London, and 

 more than 60 nations signed the treaty. In the United States, by mid- 

 June, 1971, it was in the j^rocess of being submitted for Senate ap- 

 proval; if agreed to by that body, it will go to the President for 

 ratification. 



Seabed Regime 



On May 23, 1970, President Nixon released an important policy 

 statement on the seabed. He recognized the speed with which modern 

 miderwater technology was advancing, and that the prevailing law of 

 the sea was in need of being reshaped and updated to meet the needs of 

 modern technology. He therefore proposed the convening of a new 

 conference on the law of the sea, and consideration of international 

 machinery for authorizing exploitation of seabed resources. The Pres- 

 ident proposed that "all nations adopt as soon as possible a treaty 

 under which they would renounce all national claims over the natural 

 resources of the seabed beyond the point where the high seas reach a 



