The verdict of the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration on maritime boundary arbitration between Bangladesh and India is expected to be announced later this month, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
Khursheed Alam, an additional secretary at the ministry of foreign affairs disclosed this. Alam is a former Rear Admiral and now representing Bangladesh to the tribunal as its deputy leader.
He told the FE that the hearing on arbitration is over and the case is ready for delivery of judgment. But a date is yet to be communicated from the tribunal, he said.
The tribunal is working under the framework of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
He said the five-member tribunal in The Hague in Netherlands heard the case. It went into four adjudication sessions.
Three sessions were based on presentation of documents by both Bangladesh and India while the fourth was an open court hearing in which both the sides made their points clear and crossed the claims by the other.
The verdict will be the second on maritime boundary disputes in the Bay of Bengal after settlement with Myanmar following verdict by a tribunal in Hamburg, Germany on March 14, 2012.
The court verdict is binding on both sides.
In the arbitration with Myanmar, a total of 283,471 sq km of the Bay were disputed by both the sides and the ITLOS awarded Bangladesh ownership over 111631 sq km while Myanmar got 171,832 sq km of the sea.
The dispute flared up with Myanmar mainly over hydrocarbon exploration in the off-shore waters and claim over economic zone.
Similar dispute with India is hampering Bangladesh's attempt to go for gas exploration and exploitation of other sea resources extending up to the exclusive economic zone which is 200 nautical miles from the baseline.
Bangladesh at first took the dispute with Myanmar to the ITLOS and later moved the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague on its dispute with India to on October 8, 2009.
The problem has become complicated as maritime expert M Inamul Haque pointed out in his presentation. He said India's claim overlaps some of Bangladesh's shallow and deep sea blocks within and beyond 200 nautical miles from its baselines.
The Indian claim has also posed danger to make Bangladesh a sea-locked country by narrowing the maritime access to the shore by extending its control from one side while Myanmar stands on the other side.
