Last year an arbitral tribunal established under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) delivered its award in the Dispute concerning the Maritime Boundary between Bangladesh and India (Bangladesh v India). Bangladesh having a maritime area of 40,000 sq km (approx) within the cut-off, went to the tribunal and got the maritime
area increased to 1,18,813 sq km in the Bay of Bengal. In the proceeding, Myanmar and India favored a delimitation based on equidistance. On the contrary, Bangladesh maintained that due to its position within the concavity of the Bay of Bengal, a delimitation based on equidistance would be inequitable, as it would cause a cut-off effect. The basis of Bangladesh’s argument was that the equidistance method does not ensure an equitable result, as required by Articles 74 and 83 of UNCLOS.
Such a success for Bangladesh would enhance enormous prospects for eliminating several obstacles that barred our development for the last 40 years. The step of entering into this legal process taken by Bangladesh depicts its obedience to its firm constitutional commitment towards respecting international law and peaceful settlement of the international disputes. Even, Bangladesh has set the first example in the Asian continent to settle maritime disputes peacefully and ensure harmonious bilateral relationship with its neighbors. All three countries, Bangladesh, India and Myanmar, can now play a major role to plan medium and long term energy security interests and take immediate and planned measures for exploration of living and non-living resources in the Bay of Bengal.
Last modified on Saturday, 20 August 2016 06:32