UN CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA
Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the US administration with a view to encouraging that country to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Mr Tobias Ellwood, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: We have a regular dialogue with US State Department on maritime issues, including on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and have actively encouraged the US to sign up. In 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US was committed to ratifying UNCLOS and the Administration tried – unsuccessfully - to promote this policy in 2012. Nevertheless joining UNCLOS remains a priority for the US Administration.