The United States has been absent from belonging to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for over 40 years. In the 1980s President Reagan’s administration broached the possibility of joining UNCLOS if seabed mining close to our shores would be controlled by the United States, but the issue was not fully resolved over the years.
UNCLOS provides for input to maritime jurisdiction involving mining for strategic minerals and asserting navigational rights on the world’s oceans. There are 169 member countries in UNCLOS, including NATO allies, the European Union, Russia and China.
China is taking advantage of U.S. absence from UNCLOS by securing licenses to mine strategic minerals from five deep seabed sites. These minerals are used in microchip production. China is also attempting to restrict navigation in the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
The United States needs to approve UNCLOS so we can provide input to ocean laws and policy. UNCLOS should be part of our national security program. We cannot let adversarial countries supersede us in claiming mineral and navigational rights within the world’s oceans.
Note: Information in this letter came from John Norton Moore’s article in the January 2026 issue of The American Legion Magazine.
Donald Moskowitz
Londonderry, N.H.
