Counselor of the state council and former Chief Economist of Asian Development Bank

Tang Min

Antarctica is the last pure land on the earth and it is the most important area to keep the global ecological balances. In February 2013, nearly 30 members of Antarctic Forum advance group from China stepped on Antarctica. During more than 10 days’ expedition, we touched a lot for what we saw and heard. Not only those splendid glaciers, snow and special creatures shocked us, but also the production of “Antarctic Treaty”, which was honored as the model of global cooperation, on Antarctica during the peak of the Cold War. Here was once the continent with the tensest international relationships and the most territorial disputes. During the expedition, members of advance group had several discussions on the Antarctic spirits and our inspirations. Following are some of our understandings and experiences.

Ⅰ. Antarctic cooperation is hard-won

Antarctica is the last continent people have ever found and entered on the earth. It is a treasury with rich resources. We were told that there are more than 220 metallic and non-metallic minerals in Antarctica. The iron ore of Prince Charles Mountains alone can be available for the world for 200 years. Antarctica has the world’s largest outdoor coal mine with abundant oil and gas resources. Antarctica is also extremely rich in biological resources. There are one billion storages of krill alone, which will be the largest source of protein of human in the future. The world’s largest fresh water resource is also in Antarctica. More than 90% of the global fresh water exists in the form of Antarctica glaciers.

Explorers have entered into Antarctic continent group after group since the eighteenth century. They have performed lots of heroic and moving stories. However, the early Antarctic expedition often had a strong color of colonization. Every country played all their cards to take a piece of land on Antarctica. Explorers wrote something on a piece of paper and put it under the stone, which is the declaration to the world that the land was merged into its empire. Afterwards, some countries even dispatched airplanes to throw national flag on Antarctic continent. 7 countries successively had territorial claims on Antarctica. For Antarctic Peninsula alone, countries including Britain, Chile and Argentina have claimed their sovereignty. The scramble for territory has reached a state of severe tensions and artilleries almost being fired. The scramble for Antarctica also reflected in the resources. Since human beings entered into Antarctica, the hunting for seals, whales and penguins has reached tens of millions and as a result several kinds of seals and whales have almost died out.

However, 12 national representatives reached the “Antarctic Treaty” in 1959 in order to declare that Antarctica is only for peace, to freeze countries’ territorial claims on Antarctica and to ban all military activities in Antarctica. “Antarctic Treaty” also stipulated that the freedom of scientific expedition in Antarctica should be guaranteed and the international cooperation during scientific expedition should be promoted. The cooperation of human’s wisdom and sincerity preserved a pure land on Antarctica for our offsprings and us. It is a miracle to reach the “Antarctic Treaty” and to strictly abide by in the following decades.

Ⅱ. Why can Antarctic cooperation be successful?

Territory issue is always the most sensitive and fiercest one in international affairs, which will easily give rise to war. Why can countries abandon territorial claims and achieve international cooperation in Antarctica, where have huge interests and so many countries fought for over 200 years?

We are short of knowledge to fully answer these questions and we need further study. But based on our expedition, we considered that the success of Antarctic cooperation could include following aspects at least.

1. Peace first and skillfully freeze the territorial dispute. There’s no doubt that Antarctic issues are the shadow hanging over the politics and national interests. To cooperate, we should first follow the principle of human common interests always coming first and form the consensus of cooperation. The treaty maker set “peace first”, which is easily to reach consensus, as the core of the Antarctic Treaty. Antarctica is only for peace and scientific research. It is strictly prohibited to launch any military activities as well as testing nuclear weapons and piling up nuclear wastes. With regard to the most sensitive territory issue, the maker of Antarctic Treaty proposed three important principles. The first is abstractly not to deny the territorial sovereignty. It is clearly pointed out in Antarctic Treaty that nothing in this treaty shall be construed as the waiver of any right or claim of territorial sovereignty of contracting party over Antarctica, which has previously been risen.

The second principle is to concretely freeze sovereignty. “Antarctic Treaty” proposed that no countries raise the claim of territorial sovereignty during valid period and any activities held in this period cannot be the foundation of proposing or denying territorial sovereignty. The third is that freezing territorial sovereignty has an expiry date but it can be extended. This proposal can be easier to be accepted by countries that have territorial claims. The first expiry date of freezing sovereignty in Antarctic Treaty is 30 years. In 1991, countries decided to lay aside sovereignty and open resources for another 50 years. As to the decision after 2041, when the treaty expires, the answer given by Antarctic Treaty was to leave it to the future generations. With these rules, tough issues such as the claim of territorial sovereignty and the development of resources, which are being argued endlessly, can be alleviated under the banner of peace, science, environmental protection and human beings. It has been proved over half centuries that the creative Antarctic Treaty is successful, practical and vivid.

2. Science first and rolling development. During the creation of Antarctic Treaty, scientists have created a “gentlemen agreement” that “only discuss scientific and technological problems, no politics and laws”. This principle has been implemented into all activities in Antarctica. I should say that it is the establishment of “science first” principle that lay the key foundation of forming “Antarctic Treaty” and subsequent regulations. The participating countries of Antarctic Treaty also formulated a series of concrete cooperation stipulations for guaranteeing the freedom of scientific research, promoting the international cooperation of scientific expedition, maintaining ecological system and protecting natural environment.

Meanwhile Antarctic Treaty designed “rolling development” mechanism, that is, the treaty itself only formulated the principle of cooperation while the concrete details were formulated in the way of rolling. In 1964, the signatory states adopted “Agreed Measures for the protection of Antarctic animals and plants”; in 1972 they enacted “Antarctic Seal Protection Convention”; in 1980 issued “Antarctic Biological Protection Convention” and in 1988 they adopted the “Convention on the Management of Antarctic Mineral Resources Activities”. In 1991, they adopted a more comprehensive and strict “Protocol on Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection”, which confirmed Antarctica to be the natural reserve of all mankind.

The mechanism of rolling development not only reflected in the depth and breadth of Antarctica natural environmental protection, but also in the national free participation. Any country that admits “Antarctic Treaty” can be the contracting party. For example, if a country sets up a permanent scientific expedition station, it can become the consulting party to participate in formulating new regulations. China took advantage of this and became an important consulting party in 1985 and enjoyed the right of speaking and making decisions on Antarctic issues. So far contracting party of Antarctic Treaty has extended from 12 to 45 countries and consulting party has increased to 28 countries.

3. Benefits sharing. To ensure the implementation of Antarctic Treaty, it is important to establish a win-win mechanism. Therefore, Antarctic Treaty first stipulated that all the scientific results and findings have to be shared with others in order to reduce the repeated work on scientific research. Innumerable great achievements of Antarctic scientific expedition are related to this stipulation. It also stipulated that in the future the results of the natural resources exploitation can be shared by all countries, no matter whether domestic companies take part in. Such ways of sharing benefits make it difficult for miners to make huge profits and will not cause huge losses on those who don’t exploit, which can restrict excessive exploitation on Antarctic resources and the excessive competition among enterprises. This mechanism is rarely used in other international cooperation but ensures the success of the Antarctic cooperation.

4. All countries should take care of themselves and can get involved in other’s business. If numerous treaties and agreements on the protection of Antarctica cannot be strictly implemented, they will be useless like many international agreements. There are no army and police in Antarctica. So who can supervise and implement these treaties and agreements. As we know, the first mechanism implemented by Antarctica is “get involved in other’s business”, that is, all countries, organizations and individuals have the right and obligation to supervise and report others and any Antarctic research expedition station have the obligation to be inspected by others at any time. However in terms of punishment, Antarctica implements the mechanism of “taking care of itself”, that is, if the country’s citizen or organization violates the rules in Antarctica, it shall be judged by the local court according to its local law. This can avoid some issues that are likely to cause national emotions, such as extraterritoriality. I have to say it’s so excellent.

5. Civil cooperation comes first and the government provides support. The success of the Antarctic cooperation is related to its civil-led cooperation. Most of the new mechanisms are made through the discussion among civil organizations including scientific institutions, industry association and non-governmental organizations. They will discuss first to reach an agreement and then submit to the government for records. The mechanism of civil cooperation coming first and the government providing support after is the assurance for Antarctic cooperation to continuously innovate and march towards a broader field and a deeper level in the recent decades.

Ⅲ. Inspirations from Antarctic cooperation

Antarctic cooperation is the model of effective environmental protection and action. It is also the manifestation of the progress of human civilization. Many new patterns, new mechanisms initiated in Antarctic cooperation can be applied to other cooperation worldwide after transforming. The success of Antarctic cooperation gave us the following inspirations.

1. Common interests exist among human beings. The report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward the viewpoint of “protecting the common interests of all mankind”. China’s economy has ranked to the second in the world. It is our interests and also a responsibility as a powerful country to promote world multi-polarization, propel the co-existence of multiple forces and maintain the stability of international community. Persisting in combining the national interests with the common interests of all mankind is one of the basic principles for handling foreign relations. The power of nation and the practical cooperation spirits demonstrated in Antarctic cooperation in a flexible and innovative way should be summed up. Some effective measures, such as laying aside the limited territorial sovereignty, exploiting the win-win resources and the interaction pattern of civil people first, can be the reference for China to handle international cooperation in other areas and fields.

2.  Accelerate the formulation of domestic regulations on Antarctic protection. In recent years Antarctic tourism has become increasingly popular in China. Various kinds of scientific expeditions are being conducted. As we know that China’s Antarctic aviation system is under construction. China should formulate laws on Antarctic environmental protection as soon as possible according to the “Protocol on Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection”. Strictly regulate any activities that may do harm to the Antarctic environment, such as scientific expedition, tourism and other activities by Chinese citizens and organizations. Legally define the damage caused to the Antarctic ecological system or to the person or property.

3. Encourage more civil organizations to participate in international cooperation. Civil organizations are few in number in China and little to participate in international cooperation and almost have no communication with foreign peers. We suggested taking Antarctic Forum as a pilot to set up a true civil organization which is externally orientated to carry out civil diplomacy. Through Antarctic Forum, we can gather a group of scholars, enterprisers, retired officials and all parts of society who care for international affairs and China’s future status in the world to communicate and cooperate with international civil organizations and createy patterns and ideas and extend common interests. In the early stage of "Antarctic Forum", relevant departments have given special support in various aspects such as domestic registration and event approval.