After a long period of disagreement, as illustrated above, both parties
finally issued a joint statement on the issue on 23 September 1989
indicating that from now on they would defend a common point of view
on this matter.‘s During a two-day meeting held in Jackson Hole (a
remote town in Wyoming, USA), which is said to have ‘presented the
greatest logistical challenge of any ministerial conference in US
history’,‘” Soviet Foreign Minister E. Shevardnadze and US Secretary
of State J. Baker formally declared that they recognized the need to
encourage States to harmonize their internal laws, regulations and
practices with the provisions of the 1982 tJnited Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (the LOS Convention). This by itself is not
unimportant, for the USSR apparently recognizes the navigation provi-
sions of the LOS Convention as reflecting customary international law,
independent of arguments about signature and ratification. The joint
statement subsequently turns to the issue of innocent passage: both
parties (1) considered it useful to issue a ‘Uniform Interpretation of the
Rules of International Law Governing innocent Passage’,“” and (2)
agreed to take the necessary steps to conform their internal legislation
with this understanding. | 
