APPENDIX 1 



U.S. Delegation Report — 10th Session of the 3d United Nations 

 Conference on the Law of the Sea — March 9-April 24, 1981, 

 New York 



SUMMARY 



The tenth session of the Third United Nations Conference 

 on the Law of the Sea was dominated by reactions to the United 

 States announcement on March 2 that it was undertaking a policy 

 review with respect to the Convention and that the United States 

 delegation would be instructed to seek to ensure that the nego- 

 tiations would not be completed at this session. As a result, 

 while there was some intensive discussion of a few issues, no 

 new texts or agreements emerged. 



As its start, the Conference elected Tommy T. B. Koh of 

 Singapore as its President to succeed the late Hamilton Shirley 

 Amerasinghc of Sri Lanka, who died in December. 



At the ninth session, the Conference had identified three 

 major outstanding issues:- preparatory investment protection, 

 the resolution on the preparatory commission,, and participation 

 in the Convention. With respect to preparatory investment pro- 

 tection, the immediate reaction of the Group of 77 to the United 

 States policy review was to refuse to discuss this issue so long 

 as the United States was unable to make commitments. With 

 respect to the preparatory commission, there was considerable 

 discussion in the First Committee and in its Working Group of 

 21, but no new drafts were proposed. With respect to partici- 

 pation, there was a further debate in the informal plenary, 

 followed by intensive consultations held by the President, 

 which served to clarify the legal issues involved in partici- 

 pation by entities other than states. Again, no nev; texts 

 were proposed. 



While work continued between the two interest groups con- 

 cerned with respect to delimitation of offshore zones between 

 states with opposite and adjacent coasts, no agreement was 

 reached. . . 



The informal plenary met and approved almost all of the 

 proposals of the Drafting Committee regarding Second and Third 

 Committee texts. 



The tenth session of the Conference will resume in Geneva 

 on August 3 for four weeks. The Conference may decide to extend 

 that session for a fifth week. The Drafting Committee will hold 

 an intersessional meeting in Geneva from June 29 to July 31; it 

 will direct its attention to Parts XV, XVI and XVII of the text, 

 turning back to Part XI and Annexes III and IV in the last two 

 weeks. 



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