its right to extend its territorial sea (and air- space) claims in the Aegean has been a continuing source of friction, since this would reduce high seas areas now used by the Turkish Navy and others, and because Greece has also said that it will seek to limit passage through the Aegean's many island straits. Complicating the territorial sea and straits issue is the lack of any serious current proposals to deal with the delimitation of the Aegean's continental shelf. While little progress to resolve the Aegean dispute is likely unless Greece and Turkey accept the inevitability of bilateral negotiations, the LOS Convention provides both Greece and Turkey the framework of normative rules and dispute resolution machinery which can be used to positively affect the course of events in a region that has been troubled for many years.
The complexity of the Aegean dispute is rivaled by the diversity of conflicting claims in the Spratly Islands. U.S. policy with respect to the Spratlys is to take no position on the individual merits of any particular territorial claim to any of the rocks or islands. How- ever, we have made it clear that the U.S. expects all claimants to refrain from engaging in any claims-related activities that would interfere with the navigation and overflight rights of maritime States in the South China Sea. Since the U.S. announced this policy on May 10, 1995, there has been a decline in the number of incidents in the region. And, following China's announcement that it would respect and apply the LOS Convention to the maritime aspects of the Spratlys dispute, there have been a series of meetings between the claimants. For the time being, at least, the potential application of LOS principles to the resolution of the Spratlys dispute has helped to stabilize the situation.
The rules set forth in the Convention have direct and indirect application to the critical issues arising from the exploitation and shipment of Caspian Sea oil to market. The first major group of issues involves delimitation of the Caspian Sea's oil and gas resources and fisheries among the five nations which have borders on the Caspian. Secondary issues relate to movement of the oil and gas through the Turkish Straits. The States concerned are considering the application of LOS principles to resolve issues of oil and gas rights and the rights of littoral communities to exercise freedom of navigation and utilize the Caspian's important fisheries resources. The Convention's rules regulating the creation of routing measures also have been used to enhance the safety of navigation of oil tankers passing through the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles (also known as the Turkish Straits), which is otherwise governed by the 1936 Montreaux Convention.
The Aegean, Spratly and Caspian disputes are three real-world examples where the principles embodied in a universal LOS Convention are being used to enhance international peace and security by defusing part or all of a dispute. This has already taken place in the Black Sea, where the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. used the rules of the Convention to resolve their disagreement concerning innocent pas- sage rights in 1989, despite the fact that nei-
