It is not news that some of today's major geopolitical conflicts center around the oceans and their resources. Take the case of Beijing and its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, which has put the Chinese on a covert war footing with neighbors such as Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Not surprisingly, the U.S. announcement came with a caveat about the potential overlap of its continental shelf with other countries—indeed, this is what the State Department had in mind when it stated its PCE in the Dec. 19 announcement. Canada overlaps somewhat with the Bahamas and Japan, where it is necessary to “establish maritime boundaries in the future.”
When asked about possible disputes, Evan Bloom admits that in the future, there may be complaints about the recently announced limits of the US base, especially in light of the limited (and not) existing conventions, treaties and laws governing the exploration of marine resources and the impossibility of extending the edge of each PCE indefinitely.
“Some countries and scholars may consider that the United States does not have PCE rights until it submits a request to the CLPC, [mas] The United States does not agree with such a decision, because the rights are inherent to coastal states”, reinforces the analyst who supports Aldino Campos. Others may argue that “not being a member of UNCLOS, the United States does not have the right to submit, and therefore, whether it has these rights or not, it cannot assert them, which is also false.” Because UNCLOS allows a valid argument that non-members can make submissions”, says Bloom.
This begs the question: why unilateral declaration? “Probably, realizing that some states will oppose it, the United States has decided not to submit a request, avoiding the issue for now,” explains Aldino Campos, the North American. But that doesn't mean the U.S. doesn't plan to follow the pattern of dependence that has governed the rest of the littoral nations, the Portuguese, who was an adviser to the North American government on the project, says in the final phase of the document review.
“If we study Executive summary, it is clear that it was prepared with the intention of delegating to the Limits Commission, the purpose of which is to define the outer limit by all the countries of the world using the same criteria,” explains the professor of the Navy. Art gallery. “In terms of customary law, they are not doing anything outside of international law. The proposal will be submitted to the Commission either before or after the United States ratifies the Convention, and we do not know when they will approve it and how the Commission or other States Parties will act.
Unlike the US, all UNCLOS signatories have been waiting decades for their claims to be answered. Altino Campos gives the example of Russia and its continental shelf in the Arctic, which was the first country to submit a claim to the Limits Commission in 2001. seabed and submit a revised proposal [por Moscovo]It finally had positive recommendations in 2023.
Most other countries continue to await comments on their proposed limits, as in the case of Portugal, which still has a task force under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Maritimes. But what happens when there is such an overlap? “The Commission checks, we say, 'We recommend that the international community accept these limits because they are in accordance with Article 76', and everything else depends on each country.”
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