Bangladesh has registered two protests to the United Nations against the claims of India made on some of the geographical coordinates concerning the straight baselines for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea and setting outer limits of the continental shelf.
On behalf of the Bangladesh government, the Bangladesh permanent mission to the UN headquarters in New York served two diplomatic notes on September 13 to the United Nations secretary general regarding the claims of India on the matters.
The Bangladesh government took the matter to the UN after failing to resolve it bilaterally as the dispute arose following Indian claims.
Bangladesh said that India enacted a law in 1976 declaring its territorial waters, continental shelf and exclusive economic zone using ‘the low water line’ to define the limits of those zones.
After 33 years, it amended the law in 2009 unilaterally declaring its territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf along certain portions of its east coast in the Bay of Bengal by reference to ‘straight baselines.’
The Bangladesh foreign ministry protested against the Indian move, in a letter in October 2009 to the country, and requested the country to correct the mistakes it had made.
The matter has, however, became complicated after India sent a letter to the UN opposing the baseline set by Bangladesh in April 2021. After that, Bangladesh too decided to take the matter to the UN.
In a note verbale to the UNSG on September 13, 2021, Bangladesh said the use of straight baselines in this area does not conform to the applicable rules of international law and customary international law.
Some of the base points for the straight baselines set by India are completely at sea without grounded on any form of coastline. India’s base point 87 is entirely at sea, as the nearest Indian coast is approximately 10.5 nautical miles away.
India’s base point 89 is located on Bangladesh’s side of the maritime boundary with India, 2.3nm inside Bangladeshi waters.
Bangladesh requested India to correct this mistake in the spirit of the 2014 award of the arbitral tribunal delimiting the maritime boundary between the two countries. ‘But India has yet to do so,’ according to the note to the UN secretary general which was made available on the relevant website.
Bangladesh said it ‘will continue to object to base points 87 and 89 in particular until appropriate corrections are made and notified to the United Nations.’
Foreign ministry’s maritime affairs unit secretary Md Khurshed Alam said that the way India declared its baseline is in violation of article seven of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
India, in a letter to the UN on 16 April 2021, objected to a submission of Bangladesh amending sections of the claims involving the continental shelf in the deep sea made to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on 22 October 2020.
In a separate diplomatic note to the UN secretary general on September 13, Bangladesh said that the outer limits of the continental shelf of Bangladesh are defined by one fixed point that represents the coordinates of the point where its maritime boundaries intersect with India and Myanmar.
The boundary with India was determined by the award of an arbitral tribunal on 7 July 2014. The boundary with Myanmar was determined by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in a judgment on 14 March 2012.
Bangladesh said that the bearing of the depicted delimitation line between Bangladesh and India is entirely consistent with the 2014 award of the arbitral tribunal.
‘In any event, the bearing of the delimitation line is an established fact determined by the arbitral tribunal with final and binding effect on both the parties and is readily determined by reference to the award itself,’ Bangladesh stated.
Bangladesh also said its use of the base points to which India objected has no effect on the location of the tri-point intersection, which is beyond 200 miles from the coast of either state.
India published gazette notifications reflecting the award of the arbitral tribunal related to the single maritime boundary line between Bangladesh and India, including the intersection point of the two maritime boundary lines at precisely the same coordinates as identified by Bangladesh in its amended submission.
‘There is no dispute between Bangladesh and India as to the limits of Bangladesh’s entitlement to the continental shelf beyond 200 miles in the Bay of Bengal,’ according to the note verbale, and ‘the issue of the so-called “grey area” does not “arise in connection with the establishment of the outer limit of the continental shelf” of Bangladesh.’
‘The CLCS has no role to play in the determination of the extent of the so-called “grey area” where India’s EEZ overlaps with the continental shelf beyond 200 miles of Bangladesh,’ Bangladesh said, adding that, the CLCS’s role ‘is limited to determining that Bangladesh has an entitlement in the continental shelf beyond 200 M and the limit(s) of that entitlement.’
Bangladesh’s amended submission including the intersection point of its maritime boundaries with India and Myanmar, ‘has been made in full compliance with the respective laws and procedures’ applicable in this case, according to the note verbale.
There is no justification to make further claims to the UN on matters settled an arbitral tribunal of the UN involving the disputes on maritime boundaries of Bangladesh and India,’ foreign ministry’s maritime affairs unit secretary Md Khurshed Alam added.
The disputes arose as India in 2009 submitted its claim to the continental shelf of the Bay of the Bengal cutting off Bangladesh’s access to the deep sea and creating a dispute over several thousand square kilometres of areas claimed by Bangladesh of the continental shelf.
Bangladesh immediately lodged separate objections with the UN on the matters as the maritime boundary delimitation between the two countries remained unresolved back in 2009.
On February 25, 2011, Bangladesh submitted to the commission on the limits of the continental shelf within 200nm from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
The grey area at the deep sea involving Bangladesh’s maritime boundary was set by an international tribunal.
Myanmar also lodged a submission to the UN, in December 2008, to establish its claim in deep sea from the west coast abutting the Bay of Bengal, including around the Preparis and Co Co Islands, which Bangladesh disputes.
Bangladesh objected to the Myanmar submission claiming that the areas Myanmar were seeking in the outer continental shelf form part of the natural prolongation of Bangladesh.
The cases on objections recorded by Bangladesh, India and Myanmar are still pending with the UN.
