UN General Assembly
1970

23. On the basis of the same reasons and for the same ends, a number of countries of the continent, meeting in Lima last August, declared the existence of common principles governing the law of the sea. At that historic meeting the Latin American States reaffirmed as common principles of the law of the sea, inter alia, the inherent right of the coastal States to explore, preserve and exploit the natural resources of the sea adjacent to their coasts and of the sea-bed and subsoil thereof, as well as those of their continental shelf and the subsoil thereof, and to establish the limits of their sovereignty or maritime jurisdiction in accordance with their geographical, geological and biological characteristics and the need for the sound utilization of the resources of the region.