Two Chinese research vessels – out of a total of five currently operating in the Arctic – entered the American Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) off Alaska prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to dispatch the icebreaker Healy to monitor and query the vessels.
Under International Law of the Sea foreign vessels can pass through the waters of the ECS, but research activity such as scientific studies or mapping of the sea floor, require coastal state consent.
The U.S. has not ratified the underlying convention, UNCLOS, but asserts its ECS right as part of customary international law. Chinese vessels routinely violate international law in the South China Sea with respect to the Philippines’ maritime rights. Läs artikel