Others called for a moratorium on unilateral 

 exploitation of seabed resources. Most countries 

 seemed to feel there should be a freeze on claims 

 of national sovereignty to the seabed. Some 

 maritime nations opposed any consideration now 

 by the Assembly."'"'* 



4. Position of the United States 



In explaining its support of the Resolution 

 adopted by the General Assembly,' " ' Mr. Peter S. 

 Thacher, the United States spokesman, stated that 

 the Resolution fell short of what the United States 

 considered to be "the most advantageous action 

 this Assembly could take at this session," but that 

 the United States placed "a very high priority on 

 achieving a broad consensus on the part of this 

 Assembly." He also made it clear that the United 

 States did not understand the resolution to 

 "express any views of the General Assembly with 

 respect to any principles which may eventually be 

 developed to govern the exploration and use of the 

 deep ocean floor." "Any such questions regarding 

 the future regime of the deep ocean floor," he 

 added, "whether they involve commercial, scien- 

 tific or military uses, remain to be studied and 

 considered in the future." To remove all doubt, 

 Mr. Thacher emphasized that the United States 

 took the phrase in the resolution— "as contem- 

 plated in the title of the [Malta] item" to refer to 

 "an area and environment"— "the seabed, ocean 

 floor and subsoil thereof '—and not to exploration 

 or use in the area and environment. The United 

 States expressed the hope that on the basis of the 

 work of the Ad Hoc Committee, "the next 

 General Assembly may well wish to establish a 

 Committee on the Oceans." 



Earlier, Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg had 

 explained to the General Assembly's First Com- 

 mittee debating the Malta Resolution that the 

 United States envisaged that the Committee on the 

 Oceans would (a) consider all proposals placed 

 before the General Assembly on marine questions 

 and make recommendations on such proposals to 

 the Assembly for action; (b) assist the General 

 Assembly in promoting long-term international 

 cooperation in marine science; (c) assist the 

 General Assembly in considering questions of law, 



including such matters as rights of use and 

 exploration, arms control and problems of pollu- 

 tion; (d) make recommendations for action by the 

 23rd and subsequent General Assemblies to stimu- 

 late and support international cooperation and 

 exchange in the exploration of the ocean floor; (e) 

 begin immediately to develop general standards 

 and principles to guide States and their nationals 

 in the exploration and use of the deep ocean floor; 

 and (f) develop arms control measures as part of 

 the evolving law of the deep ocean floor. '"^ 



It should be recalled that the United States has 

 changed its position with respect to the develop- 

 ment of "arms control measures as part of the 

 evolving law of the deep ocean floor" and now 

 favors submitting arms control questions to the 

 United Nations 18-Nation Disarmament 

 Committee.'"^ 



5. Work of Ad Hoc Committee 



The Ad Hoc Committee met during March 

 1968 and set up two working groups— (a) the 

 Technical and Economic Working Group to deal 

 with technical and economic questions, and (b) 

 the Legal Working Group to deal with legal 

 questions. The Committee saw its essential func- 

 tions as gathering information, clarifying issues 

 and defining goals of possible international 

 action.' °^ 



The Committee met again three times during 

 the summer of 1968. On Aug. 30, 1968, it 

 adopted the report which it will submit to the 

 23rd (1968) session of the General Assembly. With 

 its report, the Ad Hoc Committee also presented 

 the reports of the Economic and Technical and 

 Legal Working Groups, and the draft resolutions 

 and other proposals put to it. The Committee's 

 report summarizes and briefly discusses these 

 reports and proposals. But the Committee itself 

 was unable to agree on a set of recommendations 

 or proposals to submit to the General Assembly. 



101 



Marine Science Affairs 1968, at 30. 



U.N. General Assembly Doc. A/C 1/PV 1542. 



'"^See Press Release, U.S. U.N.-182, 'November 8, 

 1967, Dept. of State BuU., Nov. 27, 1967, at 723. 



'"^See Draft Resolution of United States On Preventing 

 The Emplacement of Weapons of Mass Destruction On 

 the Seabed and Ocean Floor, United States Mission to the 

 United Nations, Press Release U.S. U.N. -107 (68), June 

 28,1968. 



'"''See U.N. General Assembly A/AC 135/SR. 1-9, 

 March 18-27, 1968, which contains a summary of the 

 March meetings. 



VIII-28 



