U.S. claims to an expanse of mineral-rich seabed are being challenged by China and Russia. In December last year, Washington said it would extend its jurisdiction over an area of seabed twice the size of California that makes up its continental shelf, including in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mariana Islands. Beijing and Moscow say Washington has failed to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS, which governs access to resources in international waters. In November 2023, three lawmakers reintroduced a resolution urging the U.S. Senate to ratify the treaty. This was backed by hundreds of former U.S. government officials and military officers writing to Senate leaders urging them to ratify UNCLOS. We ask whether Washington is really hampered in its goals, why it took the decision to not join the treaty in the 1980s and what the U.S. can achieve in not being a member of UNCLOS.

Our guests:

Lai I-chung
– CEO of Taiwan-based think tank the Prospect Foundation

John Eastwood
– Senior partner, Eiger Law

From Washington, D.C.:

Gregory B. Poling
– Director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI)
– Senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
– Author of “On Dangerous Ground”

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