U.S. POLICY AND THE THIRD UNITED NATIONS 

 CONFERENCE ON THE LAW OF THE SEA 



WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1981 



House of Representatives, 

 Committee on Foreign Affairs, 



Washington, D.C. 



The committee met at 10:28 a.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House 

 Office Building, Hon. Clement J. Zablocki (chairman) presiding. 



Chairman Zablocki. The committee will please come to order. 



It is a pleasure to welcome Mr. James Malone, head of the U.S. 

 Delegation to the United Nations Third Conference on the Law of 

 the Sea, and Assistant Secretary-designate of the Bureau of 

 Oceans, Environment and Scientific Affairs. Mr. Malone will dis- 

 cuss the status of the negotiations of the 10th session of the Confer- 

 ence. 



As my colleagues know, the session met in New York from 

 March 10 through April 17. 



Mr. Malone, as you well know, this committee has had a long- 

 standing interest in the Law of the Sea Conference, despite the fact 

 that there are not very many members present here this morning 

 due to other commitments, such as the Republican Conference and 

 various markup sessions of other committees. 



Shortly after the Conference officially opened about 8 years ago, 

 members of this committee introduced a sense of Congress resolu- 

 tion encouraging the U.S. delegation to promote agreement on a 

 comprehensive treaty on the Law of the Sea. 



Subsequently, committee members have participated in the De- 

 partment of State's Public Advisory Committee on the Law of the 

 Sea and as advisers to the U.S. delegations. Members of this com- 

 mittee also had attended international conferences elsewhere that 

 were held in Japan and other countries. In the 95th and 96th 

 Congress the committee was actively involved with legislation on 

 the Deep Seabed Hard Minerals Resources Act that was enacted 

 into law in June 1980. 



A number of members of this committee had looked forward to 

 the 10th session of the Conference to resolve the remaining issues. 

 The administration, however, decided to review the U.S. policy 

 toward the negotiations and announced this decision only a few 

 days before the opening of the 10th session. 



Certainly the administration has a right to conduct a review, and 

 we look forward to being consulted on the review as it proceeds. 



I regret particularly the absence of Congressman Bingham and 

 Congressman Bonker this morning. Both asked me to convey their 

 regret at not being here because of longstanding prior commit- 

 ments. 



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