U.S. Extends Its Territorial Waters

President Reagan on Wednesday extended the territorial waters of the United States to 12 miles from 3 miles to conform to the standard set by a U.N. agreement in 1982.

The presidential proclamation said the extension will give the United States, for an additional 9 miles offshore, “a sovereignty and jurisdiction that extend to the airspace over the territorial sea, as well as to its bed and subsoil.”

Bob Hall, assistant White House press secretary, said the action was taken because almost all other countries use the 12-mile limit, and the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea had called on all nations to conform.

The President, who was vacationing in Los Angeles, said the action “will advance the national security and other significant interests of the United States.”