Bangladesh wins big: Maritime security brooks no delay

The Hague-based United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has announced its verdict on delimitation of maritime boundary between Bangladesh and India. The verdict has come largely in favour of Bangladesh, as it provided the country a substantial share of the extended Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. The Tribunal awarded Bangladesh 19,467 square kilometre area out of the disputed 25,602 sq km. It is a final judgment and is binding on both the countries as neither Bangladesh nor India is allowed to appeal against it.
Already both the states have warmly accepted the verdict and said the judgment is a win-win solution and will not affect bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India. Now we will be able to attract international oil companies (IOCs) to explore the deep sea for oil and gas. In the past, the IOCs didn't show their interest as maritime disputes were going on with Myanmar and India.
Earlier, on March 14, 2014, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) declared its judgment on delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar, which also largely went in favour of Bangladesh. The dispute concerned delimitation of territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and continental shelf of these two countries in the Bay of Bengal.
The first obstacle in uninterrupted economic use of sea resources is over. The next step now is how best resources of the sea could be utilised and protected.
The Bay of Bengal is full of resources. We can get different kinds of fishes as well as natural resources like gas, oil, and many other mineral resources. Besides, we carry 90 per cent trade through the Bay of Bengal. We can produce energy from the Bay using current and wind. So the Bay is economically and strategically important for Bangladesh.
But there are some threats and challenges to ensure maritime security of Bangladesh. Maritime security challenges of the 21st century include maritime territorial disputes, inter-state conflicts, piracy, terrorism, illegal weapons trade, human trafficking, pollution, protection of sea-lanes of communication, sea-borne trade, drug trafficking, gun-running, accidents, mining by non-state actors, cooperation, preservation of living and non-living resources, maritime search and rescue (SAR), natural disasters, climate change etc.
Maritime security means ensuring full control over our sea territory and activities to be carried out there. We need a strong Navy to protect the maritime boundary. But our Navy is still not capable to protect this huge area although efforts are there to strengthen it. Sometimes we see that our fishermen are tortured or killed and their fishes looted by the pirates. There are many pirate groups, local as well international, in the Bay of Bengal. They create problems for fishermen.
Our Navy does not have adequate capacity and manpower to nab the pirates. Sometimes fishing boats come from Myanmar and catch fish. Our fishermen are thus deprived of fishes. We have no submarine which could protect the security of the maritime boundary. We do not have no enough sea experts. We cannot launch any research project in the sea due to lack of expertise. We depend on foreign companies. Because of these threats and challenges, the maritime boundary of Bangladesh may become vulnerable. So we need to take proper steps to ensure maritime security of the country.
Our Navy needs to be upgraded and modernised at the earliest. We cannot allow international poachers to intrude into our exclusive economic zone and steal our fishes and other marine resources. The Coast Guard should also be modernised and a marine research institute needs to be established for research activities. We also need bilateral cooperation with Myanmar and India.
Last but not least, the government may consider setting up of a Bay of Bengal Maritime Commission under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence to provide it policy options for protecting and promoting our maritime resources.
Maritime security is related to our national security also. We have now got a huge area in the Bay of Bengal. But if we fail to ensure security of this huge area, we will not be able to exploit vast natural resources lying there. Ultimately it will affect our national security. To exploit our natural resources and for the sake of national interest, we must ensure maritime security.
The writer is an MSS student at the Dept. of International Relations of University                    of Dhaka. [email protected]