Agreement on Ice minerals closer

Press, 4 June 1984, Page 6

Agreement on Ice minerals closer

From

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo

Negotiations on the New Zealand-sponsored plan to regulate mineral exploitation in Antarctica have reached a significant turning point. The 16 leading members of the Antarctic Treaty are now closer on a number of issues crucial to narrowing the differences between Antarctic territorial claimant and non-claimant States, the stumbling block to an early conclusion of a historic agreement on managing mineral resource development. The agreement will fill a worrying gap in the 25-year-old treaty which is silent on the question of ownership or management of Antarctica’s resources. After 10 days of talks in Tokyo among the treaty members, the fifth in a series of negotiations begun in Wellington in June 1982, a key Western negotiator commented privately that a solution was in sight. The talks ended last Thursday. “There have been some problems that have been cleared up and I think we can see a solution,” the

negotiator said, on tne condition that he remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the talks. “I think the negotiations have made progress, but there are still some basic difficult issues left,” he said. “Most delegations would like to conclude it (the mineral treaty) within two or three more meetings. Some would like to see it go faster.” Asked if the talks had reached the midway point, the negotiator said, “Probably.” The solution would involve neither territorial claimants surrendering their sovereignty nor nonclaimants endorsing others’ sovereignty. Instead, the negotiators are setting up a regulatory committee that will determine the terms and conditions of prospecting, mining, or drilling. Committee members would include the State that wants a particular resource and the State that may claim the territory in which the resource is thought to exist. Applications for resource development would be reviewed by an advisory committee charged with assessing environmental risk. A commission of treaty

members would preside over both committees whose decisions it is believed will be taken by simple majority vote. The negotiator said offshore oil and gas deposits were the most promising resource though he denied that any treaty member had drilling plans. “You would need a super giant field down there to make it commercially interesting, and nobody knows if such a field exists,” he said. “The most difficult time to negotiate a resources regime would be when somebody found something. That would be really interesting. Now if you can do it in advance in ignorance of what is there the prospects are very much better. “There is a great merit in the situation of ignorance. It would be disastrous if next year an oilfield were discovered.” The chairman of the talks, Mr Christopher Beeby, an assistant secretary of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement after the talks that the negotiations were “not based on the knowledge that there are

great riches to be harvested. “There is no certainty that minerals will ever be found there in commmercially exploitable quantities, and development, if it ever takes place, is many years away.” The United States Geological Survey, however, estimates that the west Antarctic continental shelf may contain as much as 45 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 115 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Mr Hideo Den, Leader of the Japanese Social Democratic Federation, a minor opposition party, told reporters last week that Japan had discovered uranium near Showa Base. Mr Den supports Green Peace International and Friends of the Earth activists in their drive to set up an Antarctic Environmental Protection Agency. Environmentalists dressed as penguins, carrying banners proclaiming that “Penguins are watching,” held a demonstration outside the Japanese Foreign Ministry at the beginning and end of the talks protesting against all Antarctic mineral exploitation. Criticisms of secrecy and exclusiveness were levelled at the Tokyo meeting by the 15 nations that are signatories to the treaty but which have no voice in decisions on the fate of Antarctica because they are engaged in no scientific activity there. In particular, the Netherlands, supported by Denmark, reportedly made a series of attempts, all rebuffed, to send an observer to the meetings. However, Mr Beeby said at the end of the talks that future sessions on the minerals treaty would be open to signatory nation observers “in recognition of growing international interest in Antarctica.” Observer status will give these countries the right to participate in the discussions but not to take part in any decision-making.

The next round of mineral talks is set for February, 1985, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.