The UN Arbitral Tribunal at The Hague has awarded an area measuring 19,467 square kilometres to Bangladesh out of a disputed swathe of 25,602 sqkms in the Bay of Bengal in its verdict on the Bangladesh-India maritime boundary dispute.
Bangladesh government described the dispute settlement as "victory of friendship" as the verdict was published Tuesday simultaneously in Dhaka and New Delhi as per instruction of the international court.
The tribunal handed down the judgment earlier on Sunday to both sides to make it public at a time.
The international court, by and large, accepted Bangladesh's plea to resolve the maritime dispute based on the principle of 'equitable solution' instead of using the equidistance formula which India had been insisting on from the outset.
Officials in Dhaka said the judges gave a unisonous judgment after the hearings, except a note of dissent recorded by an Indian judge on the tribunal on a small chunk of sea at the outer periphery of Bangladesh's exclusive economic zone.
The tribunal awarded Dhaka 118,813 square kms of waters comprising 12 nautical miles of territorial sea and an exclusive economic zone extending out to 200 nautical miles into the high seas.
It has, moreover, acknowledged Bangladesh's sovereign rights to the seabed of the continental shelf extending as far as 354 nautical miles or 667 kilometres in the high seas, taking Chittagong coast as the baseline.
The verdict says Bangladesh would have an "undeniable right to exploit living and non-living resources over the area and it is now free to take up any activity to use the sea resources in any form to the benefit of the nation".
Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali welcomed the verdict as a "win-win" solution and victory of both the countries while releasing it to newsmen at the Foreign Office Tuesday afternoon.
Former Foreign Minister and Bangladesh's team leader at the tribunal Dr Dipu Moni, Adviser to the Prime Minister HT Imam, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque were also present.
Additional Foreign Secretary and retired Vice-Admiral Khurshed Alam, an expert in maritime matters, who acted as deputy leader of the Bangladesh team at the tribunal, also spoke on the occasion to explain the nitty-gritty of the verdict and apportionment of the disputed area of the bay.
Bangladesh's claim over 10 disputed gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal sustained with, however, some adjustment of areas at block 9,14,19 and 24. The new borderline shows on the Indian side the area of the offshore waters where the much-talked-about South Talpotti Island was located.
"But since the island is no more in existence and has been devoured by the sea, it is not a matter of dispute anyway to India," AH Mahmood Ali said.
The verdict has, however, left a chunk of land -- about 50 sq kms in size -- with a 'grey mark' at the edge of Bangladesh exclusive economic zone.
Khurshed Alam explained the status of the area. He said the tribunal accepted Bangladesh's right on the area, including the right to explore its seabed resources.
But, India will also have the right to go fishing in the area along with Bangladesh.
"Its status may be finally decided later on through further discussion," he said.
In fact, the Indian judge at the tribunal raised the note of dissent on this issue, saying that in his view it is contrary to existing law and principles.
Khurshed Alam said Indian claim had included some areas which were awarded to Bangladesh by the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in its judgment dealing with Bangladesh's maritime boundary case with Myanmar in 2012.
The Hague-based tribunal has saved much of this land for Bangladesh.
The five-member tribunal, headed by German Judge Rudiger Wolfrum, heard the case and gave the judgment. The four other judges are Jean-Pierre Cot of France, Thomas A Mensah of Ghana, Prof Ivan Shearer of Australia and Dr Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao of India.
Bangladesh earlier brought the case to the UN Arbitral Tribunal on February 25, 2011 to resolve overlapping claims of India in the continental-shelf zone. The tribunal judges visited the Bay of Bengal in October 23 last year and saw the intricacies at the Bay where Bangladesh's outreach to the high-sea area had come under severe stress from the Indian claim from the west and Myanmar's from the east. It had created a critical situation that may give Bangladesh the look of a sea-locked country, observers said.
Now, with both the verdicts, Bangladesh secured its free access to the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said the verdict is a step forward towards 'resolving issues friendly and peacefully with neighbors' under the ambit of international law. "It will lead to building a new era of understanding and cooperation," he told reporters.
Next to Myanmar, the resolution of maritime issue with India "will broaden our horizons towards utilizing sea resources to improve the lives of our people", he said.
UNB adds: Bangladesh hopes to invite international bidding this year to explore for gas in the maritime areas it gained after resolution of dispute with India, an official said Tuesday.
State-owned Petrobangla chairman Dr. Hussain Monsur said that the government will consult energy experts on the possibility of international bidding in the Bay of Bengal this year.
He, however, said Bangladesh will try to conduct exploration through its own resources in some shallow water blocks.
"The deep water blocks may be placed for the international bidding", he told the news agency over phone.
BD gets most part of disputed Bay area
FE Report | Published: July 09, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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