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OT 354: Letter from The Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State, to the Chairman of the Committee: Extended continental shelf

 

Extended continental shelf in respect of the Falkland Islands, and of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

I am writing to inform the Foreign Affairs Committee that, on 11 May, the UK will be making its submission to the UN in respect of an extended continental shelf around the Falkland Islands, and around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. I attach the Executive Summary of the submission,[1] which contains details of the proposed outer limits of the UK continental shelf in the region.

You will recall that, in its report on the Overseas Territories of 6 July 2008, the Foreign Affairs Committee recommended that the Government should make a submission to the United Nations in respect of the extended continental shelf around the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The work on this project is now complete, and the timing of the submission falls within the 13 May deadline, before which the UK is required to submit its continental shelf data to the UN.

Argentina has also included the continental shelf around the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in its own submission to the UN. We are currently examining this submission, but we do not accept that there is any basis for it to include areas of continental shelf generated by these UK overseas Territories. We shall respond to the UN before the Argentine submission is considered by the Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf, in line with that body's Rules of Procedure. The response will include the point that the United Kingdom has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.

We expect that the UK submission will be placed on the provisional agenda for consideration at the next meeting of the Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf in August 2009.

 

8 May 2009

 

 

 

 

 


[1] Not published as already in public domain.