Russia will raise the issue of a disputed area of the sea shelf with the United States
The agreement between the USSR and the USA on the maritime delimitation line has been valid for 32 years in the absence of legal grounds.
Deputy Alexei Kornienko announced this today at a plenary session of the Russian State Duma, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The political and economic consequences of the temporary application of the agreement are extremely negative. The Russian Parliament did not ratify it. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly confirmed that this agreement violates Russia’s interests in the field of fisheries and the Bering Sea,” Kornienko said.
The agreement between the USSR and the USA on the maritime delimitation line was signed on June 1, 1990 in Washington by USSR Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and US Secretary of State James Baker. It delimits economic zones and continental shelves in the Chukchi and Bering seas, as well as territorial waters in a small area in the Bering Strait between the islands of Ratmanov (Russia) and Kruzenshtern (USA).
The United States ratified the Agreement on September 16, 1991. The issue of ratification of the Agreement by Russia was not raised, primarily due to ambiguous assessments of its economic consequences for fisheries in the Bering Sea. Shevardnadze in the Bering Sea gave away 34 thousand square miles of oil-bearing region with a unilateral decision, and then passed it through the Politburo.
Experts note that from the very beginning of the negotiations, which began in 1977, one of the main issues in the delimitation was the issue of oil. According to experts, the disputed areas are rich not only in fish resources, but also include promising oil and gas fields “Navarinskoye” and “Aleutskoye”. This is evidenced by the sale by the US government of plots in disputed areas to American companies, which began in 1982 - long before the signing of the agreement. The resources of the areas sold since then, according to American experts, amount to about 200 million tons of oil and 200 billion m³ of gas.
Russia will raise the issue of a disputed section of the sea shelf with the United States.