123 
Similarly, we could no longer regard the likely out- 
come of a Conference as successful should it become apparent 
that other States are not prepared to accommodate basic 
United States interests in a final Law of the Sea settle- 
ment. In our statement of August 10, 1972, before the U.N. 
Seabed Committee, we reiterated what those interests are. 
Three paragraphs from that statement follow: 
"The views of my delegation on non-resource uses have 
been clearly stated on a number of occasions. It is our 
candid assessment that there is no possibility for agreement 
on a breadth of the territorial sea other than 12 nautical 
miles. The United States and others have also made it 
clear that their vital interests require that agreement on 
a 12-mile territorial sea be coupled with agreement on free 
transit of straits used for international navigation and 
these remain basic elements of our national policy which 
we will not sacrifice. We have, however, made clear that 
we are prepared to accommodate coastal State concerns re- 
garding pollution and navigational safety in straits and 
have made proposals to that effect in Subcommittee II." 
"The views of my delegation on resource issues have 
also been stated on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, 
some delegations appear to have the impression that mari- 
time countries in general, and the United States in parti- 
cular, can be expected to sacrifice in these negotiations 
basic elements of their national policy on resources. 
This is not true. The reality is that every nation re- 
presented here has basic interésts in both resource and 
non-resource uses that require accommodation." 
“Accordingly, we believe it is important to dispel 
any possible misconceptions that my government would agree 
to a monopoly by an international operating agency over 
deep seabed exploitation or to any type of economic zone 
that does not accommodate basic United States interests 
with respect to resources as well as navigation." 
In another excerpt regarding the deep seabeds we 
stated: "An effective and equitable regime must protect 
not only the interests of the developing countries but 
also those of the developed countries by establishing 
reasonable and secure investment conditions for their 
nationals who will invest their capital and technology 
in the deep seabeds. In order to provide the necessary 
protections for all nations with important interests in 
the area, it is also necessary to establish a system of 
