THE TREATY AND WHY IT WAS ADOPTED
At the beginning of March, the UN announced an agreement it described as "historic" on biodiversity on the high seas. "Decisive" according to the organisation's secretary general, António Guterres, "this action is a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing the health of the oceans, now and for generations to come".
This "treaty on the high seas" comes against a backdrop of increasing competition in these areas, which are located beyond 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coast and constitute the maximum Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of States, and which represent 60 % of the surface area of the oceans and half that of the planet. Until now, these non-state areas have been lawless zones, leaving the way open for all kinds of appropriation, predation and trafficking. As early as 1983, the historian Hervé Coutau-Bégarie noted: "Previously a simple theatre of conflict, the sea has become the object of conflict".
One of the objectives of the 2030 sustainable development agendaThis treaty is one of the tools for achieving the "30 for 30 objective", which aims to protect 30 % of the oceans by 2030. In concrete terms, it aims to: define a regulatory framework; recognise the common heritage of mankind; internationalise decisions on environmental impact assessments; ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from marine genetic resources; create marine protected areas to preserve, restore and maintain biodiversity; and generate knowledge, technical innovation and scientific understanding.
The text, which can no longer be modified in substance, will be adopted at a future meeting of the UN delegations.
OUTSIDE THE TREATY, THE QUESTION OF DEFENCE
As we can see, defence does not fall within the scope of this treaty. However, as the IHEDN pointed out in an article in November, "in the same way as space or cyberspace, the sea is a common space where the environment is global, fluid and without obvious borders". It is of major importance to the world economy: in addition to its fishery resources and the mining and energy potential of its seabed, 90 % of trade passes through it, as well as 90 % of digital flows via undersea cables.
This situation generates conflicts. In the South China Sea, for example, China has laid claim to a myriad of islands and archipelagos in order to extend its EEZ. Or in the Mediterranean, with Turkey's attempts to explore and drill in Cyprus' EEZ. Or in the Black Sea, which Russia intends to control entirely.
So many challenges to the order established forty years ago by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the SeaThe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as the Montego Bay Convention, was adopted in 1973 and signed in Jamaica in 1982. All over the world, countries were stepping up their naval armament, in a move that the French Navy's Chief of Staff, Admiral Pierre Vandier, described as "staggering and without parallel except perhaps in the 1930s".
A high-intensity confrontation at sea can therefore no longer be ruled out. It "can happen quickly as a result of even the slightest misinterpretation of an adversary's behaviour", estimates Vice-Admiral (2 s) Gérard Valin, head of the "Maritime Issues and Strategies" major at IHEDN. "Moreover, the latter can engage it if he doubts our determination or thinks he is gaining an advantage.
FRANCE'S SEABED MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
France, which has one of the two largest EEZs in the world along with the United States (11,696,000 km2), and is the only power to border all the oceans, monitors these areas on the surface, because "what is not monitored is plundered and what is plundered is claimed", as Admiral Pierre Vandier explains. At the beginning of 2022, however, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces also set up an "seabed management strategy.
"The deep sea is like a land of conquest, where hybrid strategies are expressed", explained the minister at the time, Florence Parly: "Behind the multiform economic exploitation projects, both state and private, in the fields of energy and the extraction of mineral, gas and fossil resources, there is also the desire to control the new communication routes".
This strategy, summarised in four points, aims firstly to "guarantee the freedom of action of our forces" in the French EEZ and "any zone of operational interest": "To achieve this, it will be necessary to understand adversary strategies (surveillance and underwater interdiction) in order to best adjust our efforts and requirements to the threats they pose, in our maritime approaches and our deployment zones".
The second point is to "protect our submarine infrastructures", bearing in mind that of the 450 submarine communication cables currently in service, 51 are connected to French territory (27 in mainland France and 24 in overseas territories). The aim is to protect them against any attack, whether malicious, accidental or natural.
The third point concerns the protection of our resources. Technological innovations are enabling governments, but also private players, to covet the resources of the seabed, which must therefore be "known, exploited sustainably, but above all protected".
Lastly, France intends to be "ready to act and to pose a credible threat": "The increased performance of autonomous search sensors, particularly in terms of endurance at sea and detection performance, combined with a precise intervention capability, means that man-made objects of all sizes can now be searched for and recovered from the deep sea. We now need to be able to act reactively and discreetly in the light of these new capabilities, using artificial intelligence in particular.
