MARITIME BOUNDARIES

Bangladesh will take time, at least several months, to raise its objection at the United Nations to New Delhi’s claim over certain areas in the Bay of Bengal which has led to a dispute over demarcating maritime boundaries between the two neighbours.(The Newage)Foreign ministry officials told New Age that India has already submitted its claim on maritime delimitation to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, a UN body to deal with the law of the seas, in May 2009, one month ahead of its deadline.‘The commission is scheduled to ask Indian authorities for the hearing over its submission by March, 2010 and we are preparing to submit our response on Indian claims immediately before the hearing,’ said an official dealing with the process of Bangladesh’s claims over maritime boundary.Officials in Dhaka said that they were working out the country’s response to the Indian claims in the Bay of Bengal, but preferred to take time to strengthen its claims incorporating various arguments.With regards to delimitation of maritime boundary, the two South Asian neighbours have contentions over two areas—that of natural prolongation of the continental shelf and the baseline.India has argued that the course of the natural prolongation of continental shelf is from east to west which is rejected by Bangladesh saying it is from north to south.For delimitation of maritime boundary both Bangladesh and India have some overlapping claims on baselines.Bangladesh is preparing its case for extraction of marine resources, especially gas exploration, in the Bay of Bengal, but has not been able to invite tenders for block biddings as its maritime boundary has not been demarcated as yet.According to the United Nations Convention on Law of the Seas, Bangladesh must demarcate its sea boundaries by July 27, 2011, India by June 29, 2009 and Myanmar by May 21, 2009.‘We are taking preparations to put forward our objection at the UN by June to Myanmar’s claim and by November to India’s claim in the Bay of Bengal,’ an official involved with the issue told New Age.Myanmar has already submitted its claim on maritime delimitation to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, and Bangladesh put its response at the UN to Myanmar’s claim in July, 2009.As per the UN provision, claims submitted by any country would not be taken for final consideration before settling the objection raised by a neighbouring country which might have overlapping claims.Bangladesh resumed negotiations with India and Myanmar last year, during the regime of the military-controlled interim government, after a lapse of almost three decades.Dhaka opted to go for negotiations as India and Myanmar recently opposed Bangladesh’s offshore block biddings for exploration of oil and gas even within its own territorial waters as Dhaka did not have an internationally accepted exclusive economic zone.Bangladesh has problems with India and Myanmar on the issue of ‘starting point’ on how to mark the coastlines from the exclusive economic zone that has apparently overlapped claims of the three neighbouring countries due to the funnel-like shape of the Bay of Bengal.A country is supposed to enjoy its rights to fish and extract and explore other marine resources in its exclusive economic zone, an area of 200 nautical miles into an adjacent sea, according to international maritime law.