Obama administration has consistently supported UNCLOS ratification as key to U.S. national security

Similarly, President Obama emphasized the nexus between international law and national security in his 2013 National Strategy for the Arctic Region, in which he focused on three lines of effort. One of the three lines was to:

Strengthen International Cooperation-Working through bilateral relationships and multilateral bodies, including the Arctic Council, we will pursue arrangements that advance collective interests, promote shared Arctic state prosperity, protect the Arctic environment, and enhance regional security, and we will work toward U.S. accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.^{18National Security Council. Implementation Plan for The National Strategy for the Arctic Region . The White House: Washington, D.C., January 31, 2014 (32p). [ More (3 quotes) ]}

President Obama reiterated his commitment to U.S. accession in the recently-released 2015 National Security Strategy, in which he warned that failure to ratify UNCLOS "undermines our national interest in a rules-based international order."¹⁹