APPENDIX 3 



Letter of March 18, 1981, From Ambassador T. T. B. Koh to 

 Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig 



March 18, 81. 



H.E. Mr Alexander M Haig, Jr 

 The Secretary of State 

 Washington 



Dear Mr Secretary, 



Thank you very much for your letter dated 16 March 

 1981, congratulating me on my election to the presidency 

 of the 3rd .UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. I deeply 

 appreciate your pledge that the United States delegation 

 will cooperate with me in the discharge of my duties. The 

 United States delegation, during the past three administra- 

 tions, has always played a very constructive role in the 

 negotiations at the Conference. I am sure that "I can expect 

 the United States delegation, under the Reagan Administration 

 to continue that tradition! 



I understand the need for the new Administration to 

 undertake a thorough, review of ., the draft convention. It is 

 a pity that the review could not be completed before the 

 9th of March. It is also a pity that your delegation did not 

 tell us earlier that you need more time to complete your 

 review. If you had done so the conference would have been 

 prepared to change the dates of the session in order to 

 accommodate you. 



I wish to make two requests. First , I request that 

 the process of review be completed as soon as possible 

 and, in any case, not later than June this year. It is the 

 collective will of the conference to complete our work this 

 year. In order to do so, and given the fact that you are 

 not in a position to conclude our negotiations at the current 

 session, we shall have to hold a final resumed session this 

 summer. My second request is that whilst the review is taking 

 place, the Reagan Administration should make an authoritative 

 statement affirming that it is working towards the objective 

 of a generally acceptable convention on the .law of the sea, 

 that it continues to uphold the principle that the resources 

 of the international area of the seabed and ocean floor 

 constitute the common heritage of mankind and that it 

 stands by the compromise proposals enunciated by Secretary 

 Kissinger. in 1976 on the international regime for the 

 exploration and exploitation of the resources of the inter- 

 national area of the seabed and ocean floor. 



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