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world ocean is becoming no less acute. The . . . states no longer 
restrict themselves by their own laws on the exploitation of the 
natural riches of the Continental Shelf: they are striving to extend 
their national jurisdiction to the open waters of seas and oceans 
vast distances from their shores. Attempts at usurping certain 
areas of the seabed by individual . . . countries are becoming 
a continually more sweeping and widespread practice surpassing 
in importance certain fields of politics, economics, production, 
and science. And inevitably contradictions and crisis situations 
are arising here. Thus, some countries, in carrying out the 
development and surveying of the Continental Shelf, are already 
raising the question of prohibiting freedom of navigation and the 
cruising of naval ships in waters over the location of undersea 
work, the question of significant expansion of territorial waters, 
and similar questions. . . . A definite impression on the division 
of the ocean was made by the signing in 1958 of the Geneva 
Convention on the Continental Shelf according to which all lit- 
toral states were granted the right of ownership of the riches 
of the seabed in their own sections of the shelf down to a depth 
of 200 meters or beyond this limit to a point at which the water 
depth permits exploitation of the resources of this area. A defect 
in the convention is the absence of a clearcut formulation of 
the outer limits of the Continental Shelf of the littoral states. . . . Sev- 
eral Afro-Asian and Latin American developing countries are 
insisting on a review of all existing norms regulating the 
use of the world ocean. . . . Representatives of these countries 
put their position on the plane of a struggle between the poor 
and the rich, between the backward and the industrially developed 
countries. . . . The delegations of the U.S.S.R. and of other Social- 
ist countries have sharply criticized such extremist views .. . 
pointing out that such a nonclass approach, the simple division into 
rich and poor people, was not only unjust but also was . . 
insulting to the people of the Socialist countries (who) have cre- 
ated their own wealth themselves, without exploiting anyone... . 
Several developing countries are steadily advancing the idea 
of developing a convention on the seabed regime and on creating 
an international organ with very extensive power which would 
become, essentially, a supranational organ and would control all 
exploitation of the seabed conducted by different countries. It 
is quite evident that such an approach is not very realistic, since 
it actually envisions an institution of some sort of international 
consortium. . . . Eight Latin American and one African state 
have 200-mile limits. Experts have calculated that if all countries 
declared 200-mile territorial waters, then of the 361 million 
square kilometers of water on our planet, about 140 to 150 
million square kilometers would be appropriated by the coastal 
states. ... The key to solution of this question is the strict 
establishment of limitations on the breadth of territorial 
seas. . . . Based on existing practice. . . it would seem completely 
acceptable to limit territorial waters up to 12 miles.’’* 
4 Adm. S. G. Gorshkov, ‘‘Navies in War and in Peace,” Morskoy Sbornik, February 1973 (signed 
to press February 5, 1973). 
