Every day, the correspondents’ club describes how the same news story is illustrated in other countries.
Nearly 70 countries began signing, on Wednesday September 20, a historic treaty to protect the high seas which aims to protect marine ecosystems vital to humanity. Flagship tool of the new treaty: the creation of marine protected areas in international waters. Today, only about 1% of the high seas are subject to conservation measures. It could come into force as early as 2025, at the time of the next United Nations Ocean Conference in France. China signs, Russia distances itself. Both countries have interests in the maritime areas surrounding them.
China: the South China Sea
On this issue of protecting the oceans, China wants to show that it is at the forefront. This week at the United Nations, China’s vice foreign minister was one of the first to sign the treaty. Beijing wishes to appear as one of the great defenders of this treaty, a way for the Chinese, the planet’s leading polluters, to give themselves a positive image on the issue of ocean protection and to make people forget certain accusations made in recent years about Chinese fishing methods, particularly off the coast of Africa. Fishing described in certain African countries as very intensive and destructive for the environment. Under these conditions, China wishes to restore its image by playing the leading role in this new treaty on the protection of the high seas.
The implementation of this treaty will be monitored very closely. The South China Sea is a particularly explosive area where there are territorial rivalries. Beijing claims sovereignty over a very large part of the South China Sea and occupies several disputed islets. There are already conflicts today with Filipino or Vietnamese fishermen, linked to the delimitation of maritime zones. The risk is clearly to see new tensions emerge between the Chinese on one side and the countries bordering this South China Sea on the other.
Russia: the Arctic and the Black Sea
Initially, Russia seemed rather favorable to the text. And then it was in the final phase of the negotiation that things went wrong. Russia had sent among its negotiators representatives of the fishing industry, which is extremely important in the country. However, marine protected areas will obviously be prohibited for fishing, and Russian boats fish extensively in the open sea, outside Russian waters, many of which have been emptied of their resources by overfishing. There are also very political and diplomatic reasons. Russia has always considered that certain maritime zones, in the Arctic, the Black Sea, in particular, were under its control, even if they are not completely part of its territorial waters or its economic zone. She therefore takes a dim view of this agreement.
And then generally speaking, today, Russia is still much more in a logic of disengagement from bodies or major international agreements than in a logic of cooperation. Russia has also just announced its withdrawal from the Barents Sea Euroarctic Council. It is a body supposed to promote the sustainable development of this area of the Arctic. Russia is also de facto excluded from the Arctic Council at the moment. And Greenpeace was classified as an undesirable organization in Russia a few months ago, and this is probably no coincidence.