Shahidul Islam Chowdhury
Bangladesh has called for a 'legally equitable' resolution of its dispute with Myanmar over the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.
Dhaka made the appeal in it reply filed with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea over Myanmar's claims concerning delimitation of maritime boundary between the two countries, according to ITLOS.
The foreign ministry said it had filed the reply on March 14 for a 'legally equitable' resolution of the dispute.
When his attention was drawn to the issue, additional foreign secretary M Khurshed Alam, also Bangladesh's deputy agent to ITLOS confirmed the filing of the reply.
'The reply was submitted as per the schedule set by the ITLOS,' he said.
Bangladesh was scheduled to file her reply by on March 15.
The ITLOS is a judicial body created by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas. Bangladesh and Myanmar, on mutual consent, invited ITLOS in 2009 to exercise its jurisdiction over the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries.
Bangladesh submitted a 'memorial' on her claims in the Bay on July 1, 2010. Myanmar submitted a 'counter-memorial' on December 1, 2010.
Myanmar is scheduled to file its rejoinder on July 1, 2011 concluding the written proceedings of the case.
The tribunal is likely to start taking oral proceedings by the end of this year [2011].
The two countries, which had held prolonged negotiations over the dispute since 1974, failed so far to reach a settlement.
It would take at least two years to settle the case concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal, ITLOS president Jose Luis Jesus said at the UN headquarters in New York on October 25, 2010.
The ITLOS president described the case, which has been registered with the tribunal as 'Case No. 16' on disputes between Bangladesh and Myanmar as 'a milestone' for the tribunal since 'it is its first case on maritime delimitation'.
Bangladesh on February 25 this year submitted its claims to the United Nations in New York on the country's legitimate authority over 450 nautical miles from the coastline in the Bay of Bengal.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni, who is also the 'agent' for the country with ITLOS, handed over Bangladesh's 'position paper' to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLCS) for demarcating the outer limits of its continental shelf.
A country is supposed to enjoy its rights to fishing and exploring and extracting other marine resources in its 12–24 nautical miles of territorial sea from the coastline, 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone and a maximum 350 nautical miles of continental shelf from the baseline.
Bangladesh has, however, long-standing disputes with India and Myanmar on the issue of 'starting point' on how to mark the coastline to draw its marine boundary, with apparently overlapping claims of the three neighbouring countries because of the funnel-like coastline of the Bay of Bengal.
Under the UN provision, no claims submitted by a country should be taken for final consideration before settling the objection raised by a neighbouring country, which might have overlapping claims.
Establishing legal maritime boundaries would create scope for Bangladesh to undertake systemic programmes for utilising resources in the Bay, experts said.
Read the original story on the daily New Age
