MEDIA NOTE
SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
We, Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ireland, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Senegal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as coastal countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean and members of the community of Atlantic countries, share a commitment to a peaceful, prosperous, open, and cooperative Atlantic region, while preserving the ocean as a healthy, sustainable, and resilient resource for generations to come.
We all depend on the Atlantic for our livelihoods. The Atlantic Ocean is home to important trade routes, significant natural resources, and essential biodiversity. Challenges such as piracy; transnational organized crime; illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; climate change; pollution; and environmental degradation pose a threat to our livelihoods. The Atlantic Ocean also offers untapped economic potential, from natural resources to new technologies. No country alone can solve the cross-boundary challenges in the Atlantic region or fully address the opportunities before us.
In order to bring together Atlantic countries to accomplish our shared goals, we will explore opportunities, as appropriate, to partner on a set of common challenges in the Atlantic Ocean region and to explore the development of a wider dialogue on strengthening cooperation in the region.
We will explore opportunities to advance shared sustainable development, economic, environmental, scientific, and maritime governance goals across the Atlantic, in accordance with international law, in particular as set forth in the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and we reaffirm UNCLOS’s important role in setting out the legal framework that governs all activities in the ocean and the seas. We aim to enhance regional cooperation, to develop a shared approach to Atlantic Ocean issues, and to build shared capacity to solve the challenges we face in the Atlantic.
Read more: Joint Statement on Atlantic Cooperation – United States Department of State
