India agrees to 'equitable solution' in sea talks

[TopCat]

Sun, Mar 22nd, 2009 9:16 pm BdST Dial 2324 from your mobile for latest news



Dhaka, March 22 (bdnews24.com)—India has for the first time agreed to reach an "equitable solution" regarding maritime demarcation with Bangladesh on the basis of a UN law on seas, a government official said Sunday.

Additional foreign secretary MAK Mahmood said it marked the first time New Delhi had used the phrase, with reference to the international convention, in a total of 12 sea border meetings with Dhaka.

"This is the first time, India has agreed to an 'equitable solution' under UNCLOS," said Mahmood, who led the 11-member Bangladesh side at the just-concluded 12th bilateral meeting (March 17-18) in in New Delhi.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the basis of the negotiations as both countries are signatories to the 1982 convention.

Mahmood was optimistic about the possibility of "bridging some of the gaps between the two countries."

"We are coming to a greater understanding than before," he told bdnews24.com at his office.

He said there were still some disagreements on the procedure for demarcation.

"But the differences can be narrowed down," he said.

Bangladesh and India resumed maritime boundary talks, the 11th round, in September last year after a 24 year-long hiatus.

The September talks in Dhaka failed over disagreement on measuring the mid-point of the boundary river Hariabhanga.

India said the mid-point, which would be the border line, should be demarcated from the Eastern side while Bangladesh demanded it be measured from the West.

However, the two sides agreed to continue dialogue.

 

[TopCat]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Well at last... Now we need to make the burmese to come to their sense and our terms...

 

[M_Saint]

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Well at last... Now we need to make the burmese to come to their sense and our terms...

Not before getting the transit in bigger form that it actually wanted---

::Welcome to Daily Naya Diganta::

Now I would repeat--

Malaun Ka Baccha

Kabi Nahe Ascha

Jo Look Bolta he Ascha

Ucko Shour Ka Bascha

 

[BelligerentPacifist]

Why's India behaving so uncharacteristically over here, could somone enlighten us?

 

[TopCat]

Well thats how india works all along. They twist thing first, twist little more and then start dragging. Finally checking all your nerves and failing to twist anymore and get itself inside the knot and then come to terms....

 

[BanglaBhoot]

No actually India sees that it might be implicated in the BDR mutiny and so is pretending to be in a compromising mood. It has no intention of coming to an equitable understanding on demarcation.

 

[Gabbar]

No actually India sees that it might be implicated in the BDR mutiny and so is pretending to be in a compromising mood. It has no intention of coming to an equitable understanding on demarcation.

Man you are so funny!!!

 

[idune]

No actually India sees that it might be implicated in the BDR mutiny and so is pretending to be in a compromising mood. It has no intention of coming to an equitable understanding on demarcation.

I was going to say exactly that. Whatever India has said in that meeting was to throw Bangladesh off track. Besides, Bangladesh had plan to get 3 frigates in near future and possibly other equipment including sub. And in recent month US had offered help Bangladesh protecting Bangladesh maritime and EEZ boundary. Considering all these, India will and may already using back channel with Hasina govt for not justifying any of these initiatives by Bangladesh.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

How true signals from Delhi are?

Bangladeshis have reasons to feel elated at the way the Awami League government promises to settle burning issues with India as its Ministers and officials foresee peaceful and amicable settlement of those with India. They say they have the warmest ties with Delhi and the issues remained unresolved as any other government other than that of the Awami League had hostility with the big neighbour. So it is no surprise, while a state minister has promised rightful share of the common rivers in the days ahead, a senior official has returned from Delhi having been fully satisfied that India has agreed to the principle of equity while demarcating our maritime boundary. It seems the Awami League has the magic wand in this regard and the nation has every reason to heave a sigh of relief. But how much relief is allowed to the nation will be seen in the days ahead.

While we are pleased that the government has taken up the matter of settling our maritime disputes, we find it absolutely inexplicable that Bangladesh and India have not discussed maritime boundary issues for over 28 years even though significant disputes remain and there are genuine grievances on our part against India’s repeated breaches of international law with regard to our maritime boundary.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – which came into effect in 1994 and has been signed and ratified by Bangladesh, India and Myanmar – established the principle of a nation’s exclusive economic zone stretching 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. Under Article 56 (a) of the convention, we have within our exclusive economic zone ‘sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the sea-bed and of the sea-bed and its subsoil, and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds’.

The disputes with both India and Myanmar – whose offshore survey areas overlap with our proposed exclusive economic zone – appears to revolve around the baseline or starting point from which Bangladesh ought to demarcate its maritime boundary, particularly with regard to our exclusive economic zone. Experts in our country have suggested that our claim is geo-scientifically justified under the conditions set forth by the UN convention. If that is indeed the case, then our authorities must hold their ground in their discussions and ensure that we are able to obtain what is rightfully ours under what is now international law. Moreover, we must ensure through negotiations that neither India nor Myanmar breaches in future our territorial waters, much less allow their nominated companies to explore for natural resources inside our maritime boundary. It is unfortunate that despite allegations of Indian encroachment in the past, neither our so called pro-India governments nor our so-called anti-India governments have attempted to solve the disputes till now.

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