SINCE Bangladesh's birth in 1971, the importance of the sea and its resources has been recognised.

In 1974, Bangladesh was the only country in South Asia to enact a maritime law -the Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act. Under the law, Bangladesh has claimed 12 miles of territorial sea, another 188 miles of exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf to "the outer limits of the continental margin on the ocean basin or abyssal floor" (150 miles beyond exclusive economic zone). India and Myanmar enacted similar laws in 1976 and 1977, respectively. Bangladesh's claim to maritime zones consist of two parallel lines extending southward on the meridians of the longitude from baselines corresponding to its coastline up to the outer limits of continental shelf. The urgency in delimitation of maritime boundary for Bangladesh with India and Myanmar is partly because Bangladesh cannot explore and exploit off-shore areas due to overlapping claims of India and Myanmar, and partly because strong prospects for gas/oil in the off-shore areas exist, coupled with the rising domestic demand for oil/gas for generation of power. Furthermore, the most remarkable progress in off-shore technologies during the last 15 years is the three-fold increase in the maximum operational depth of off-shore rigs, which has opened up thousands of square miles in the Bay of Bengal. Bilateral negotiations commenced in 1974 with India and Myanmar. After a lapse of 26 years, bilateral negotiations were held with India in September 2008 and March 2009. The impasse remained. After a lapse of 22, years negotiations resumed with Myanmar in November 2008 and the last one took place in March 2010. The discussions did not yield any positive result. Bangladesh, India and Myanmar ratified the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Bangladesh ratified in July 2001, India in 1995 and Myanmar in 1996. They accept the rules of UNCLOS and laws of international law on the subject matter, including the dispute settlement mechanism. Article 287 of UNCLOS provides, among others, two procedures for dispute settlement: International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) established in accordance with Annex VI; Arbitral Tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VII. The structure and procedure of ITLOS differs from that of the arbitral tribunal. The tribunal consists of 21 independent elected judges, and the parties nominate one judge each. The arbitration tribunal is composed of five arbitrators -- three appointed by the president of the Tribunal and one each by the parties. Furthermore, the procedure of ITLOS is likely to proceed more quickly than that of arbitration.

Bangladesh-Myanmar Given the impasse, Bangladesh had no other alternative but to refer the matter before the Tribunal on December 14, 2009, and both Bangladesh and Myanmar accepted the jurisdiction of ITLOS. It is noted that initially Myanmar opted for arbitration but later reversed its decision in favour of ITLOS, because the parties reportedly could not reach a consensus on nominating the arbitrators to Tribunal. During consultations with the president of the tribunal on January 25 and 26 on the premises of the tribunal in Hamburg, Germany, the representatives of the parties agreed on the following time-limits for the filing of the written pleadings: July 1, 2010: Time-limit for the filing of the Memorial by Bangladesh; December 1, 2010: Time-limit for the filing of the Counter-Memorial by Myanmar. They further agreed that the time-limits for the filing of pleadings should be as follows: March 15, 2011: Time-limit for the filing of the Reply by Bangladesh; July 1, 2011: Time-limit for the filing of the Rejoinder by Myanmar. The proceedings will begin by the end of 2011. Ordinarily, it takes 2 to 3 years and the decision is final. Bangladesh-India India did not accept the jurisdiction of International Tribunal as Myanmar did, and opted for arbitration tribunal under Annex VII. On October 8, 2009, Bangladesh initiated arbitration proceedings against India. In February, the president of the tribunal appointed three arbitrators -- Tullio Treves of Italy, I.A. Shearer of Australia and Rudigar Wolfrum of Germany. (Tullio Treves and Ivan Anthony Shearer are ITLOS judges.) Bangladesh nominated Alan Vaughan Lowe, QC, a former professor of Oxford University and India nominated P. Sreenivasa Rao, former legal adviser of the external affairs ministry. In May this year, the president of the arbitral tribunal called India and Bangladesh to attend a meeting to fix a time-table of submission of their pleadings and rejoinders. It was decided as follows: Bangladesh is to lodge its statement of claim by May 2011;

India will respond by May 2012. The decision of the proceedings may take five years. The first issue is that the proceedings will address important equity and equidistance method in defining exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal. Given the concave coast of Bangladesh and also taking into account Bangladesh's position as lateral/adjacent state with India and Myanmar (as opposed to India and Sri Lanka), Bangladesh strongly argues that equidistance method is not suitable as a starting point in delimiting maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal. Much of the continental shelf claimed by Bangladesh can be argued to be the deposit of silt through the rivers through Bangladesh (1.8-2 billion tons of silt annually) forming the continental shelf, which is arguably a natural prolongation of the landmass of Bangladesh in the southward direction. Bangladesh further argues that if India and Myanmar insist on equidistance method, Bangladesh will be affected by "cut-off" that will turn a coastal country into a "sea-locked" nation without any opening to high seas, and will not be able to claim additional 150 miles of continental shelf. The interpretation of customary international law of maritime delimitation as embodied in the 1969 ICJ judgment and Articles 74 and 83 of UNCLOS provide strength, in my view, to Bangladesh's above argument, and that equity has emerged as an integral part of law in maritime delimitation. States may take recourse to various factors to achieve an equitable solution. In 1969, the ICJ ordered the parties (Denmark, Germany and Netherlands) to negotiate the boundary by application of equitable principles so as to avoid the "cut-off" for Germany that would result from equidistance method. The court stated: "Delimitation is to be effected by agreement taking into account all the relevant circumstancesincluding general configuration of the coast of the parties, physical and geological structure." It is noted that the India's claim in the Bay of Bengal constitutes about 5-7% of their total maritime zone, and Myanmar's claim could be no more than 15% of its total claim while Bangladesh's stake is 100% in the Bay of Bengal. A corollary issue before the tribunal is whether the baselines drawn by Bangladesh, India and Myanmar are consistent with the provisions of UNCLOS. While Bangladesh objects to India's and Myanmar's description of baselines, they also do not accept Bangladesh's baseline. Meanwhile, lodgment of proceedings with the international tribunal and arbitration does not preclude bilateral discussions with India and Myanmar.

The reference to the UNCLOS dispute machinery is a positive development in stark contrast to the stagnation of maritime talks between Bangladesh and its neighbours for more than two decades.

Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni lodged the historic submission to the UN Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea in New York on 25 February 2011, "This is Bangladesh's most significant claim of the continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal since its independence and the claim ranges from 400-460 nautical miles (NM) in the sea-bed of the Bay of Bengal," "The submission completes the outstanding obligation of Bangladesh under the provisions of the Article 76 of UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to provide scientific and technical information with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in support of Bangladesh's rights to the continental shelf beyond 200 NM," Bangladesh has held extensive consultations with Federal Institute of Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) of Germany, GRID- Arendal of Norway, Centre for Coastal and Ocean Mapping of University of New Hampshire, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA for preparation of Bangladesh's submission. Economic and Legal Section of Commonwealth Secretariat has provided legal and technical assistance to the final documentation of Bangladesh's submission. Bangladesh has also received advisory assistance from Dr. Herald Brekke, a member of the CLCS. A dedicated seismic survey was conducted in the Bay of Bengal in March last at a cost of Taka 38 crore to collect geological evidence in favour of Bangladesh's claim.

India and Myanmar already submitted their claims to the CLCS on 29 June and 21 May respectively in the year 2009, according to their respective deadlines. Both have claimed the potential area of Bangladesh in their submission. Bangladesh has lodged 'objections'
against their claims, the next meeting of the Commission will take place in August this year. It is expected that the submission of Bangladesh will be presented to the Commission in the next session. After presentation of submission, a sub-commission will be formed who will examine Bangladesh's submission, The CLCS will provide with recommendations regarding the outer limits of Bangladesh's continental shelf. It will verify whether the scientific and technical data supplied by Bangladesh sufficiently proves Bangladesh's entitlement to that area. The CLCS resolves claim of any country regarding their maritime boundary from 200 NM to 350 NM. But it is important to determine 12 NM of territorial sea from the baseline of coast and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) till 200 NM, The lateral limit of the continental shelf is a bilateral issue which the Commission will not be able to resolve. Bangladesh's claim area is already overlapped by India and Myanmar's claim. Bangladesh has already initiated legal proceedings in the International Tribunal for

the Law of the Sea against Myanmar and in the Annex VII Arbitral Tribunal for resolution of this dispute. For the delimitation of continental shelf with India and Myanmar, Bangladesh depends on the judgment of the Tribunals. Bangladesh enacted the Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1974, long before the adoption of UNCLOS 1982 and promulgation of such laws by any of our neighbours. Bangladesh was also the first country in the world to claim 200 NM of Exclusive Economic Zone through this Act. Subsequently, it also promulgated depth-based baseline in the Bay of Bengal which was unique in nature but catering the special needs of our deltaic coastline. Bangladesh for the first time negotiated maritime boundary with Myanmar in November 1974 for the territorial sea limit of 12 nautical miles (around St Martins Island) through an agreed minutes. Bangladesh signed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982 on the very day of its adoption on December 10 in 1982. on July 27, 2001, Bangladesh ratified the Convention. Ratification of UNCLOS offered Bangladesh an opportunity to claim an area of more than 350 NM in the seabed of the Bay of Bengal within 10 years. For that, Bangladesh was supposed to submit its claim with necessary geophysical data and evidences to the UN CLCS by July 26 this year.

THE present day Law of the Sea is the outcome of United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea of 1958 (UNCLOS I), UNCLOS II of 1960 and UNCLOS III of 1982. Bangladesh has its Territorial Waters & Maritime Zones Act of 1974. It has ratified the UNCLOS 1982 on 27 July 2001, having time for claims to UN Commission to the Limits of Continental Shelf (UNCLCS) by July 27, 2011. According to the UNCLOS III of 1982 articles 3 and 15, every state has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baselines determined in accordance with this Convention. The baseline is the line of low tide along the seashore of a state. As per article 17, ships of all states, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea. Article 33 gives authority of a state on certain other matters to further 12 nautical miles called the Contiguous Zone. Exclusive Economic Zone

According to the UNCLOS III of 1982 article 55, the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime established in this Part, under which the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State and the rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant provisions of this Convention. As per its article 56, in the EEZ, the coastal state has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil, and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds. The above two articles give the coastal states rights over an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, for economic exploitation. But as per its article 57, this EEZ shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. Continental Shelf The UNCLOS III of 1982 in its article 76 gives rights to the coastal states to go down to some points beyond the EEZ called the continental shelf. As per its sub article 1, the continental shelf of a coastal state comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance. As the limits of sea boundary prolongs towards the deep sea, disputes may arise between adjacent states on their boundaries and claims over their natural resources. Bangladesh has three base lines on its seashore: 1) from the Hariabhanga Estuary to the Haringhata Estuary which makes about a 10 degree slanting towards east from the longitudinal lines; 2) from Haringhata Estuary to the Karnafuli River which makes about a 10 degree slanting towards west from the longitudinal lines; and 3) from the Karnafuli River to St. Martins Island which makes about a 70 degree slanting towards west from longitudinal lines. Thus, if the boundary limits are prolonged from these three baselines, three different scenarios of continental shelf shall arise where Bangladesh can claim over other state's continental shelf. So, the sub article 4(a) of the article 76 gives clarifications to resolve the disputes. Article 76 sub-section 4(a): "For the purposes of this Convention, the coastal State shall establish the outer edge of the continental margin wherever the margin extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured by either, i) a line delineated in accordance with paragraph 7 by reference to the outer-most fixed points at each of which the thickness of sedimentary rocks is at least 1 per cent of the shortest distance from such point to the foot of the continental slope; or ii) line delineated in accordance with paragraph 7 by reference to fixed points not more than 60 nautical miles from the foot of the continental slope. This article 76 limits of the continental shelf on the seabed, drawn in accordance with paragraph 4 (a) (i) and (ii), not beyond 350 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured or not beyond 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metre isobath which is a line connecting the depth of 2,500 metres."

The Bengal Fan The Bengal Fan is the bed of sedimentary rocks in the sea that starts from the mouth of River Ganga sloping gradually down to 5 degree latitude in Indian Ocean. Sediments from the Indian Territory as well as from Myanmar also contribute to this fan, but their contributions can be easily separated from the isobaths. In the Bengal Fan, a deep trough from south of the Sundarbans, called the Swatch of No Ground, separates sediments of western and eastern branches of the River Ganga arriving through India and Bangladesh. A similar trough from south of the St. Martins Island can separate sediments from Bangladesh and Myanmar rivers. These two lines can be our sea limits as per UNCLOS III of 1982. Bangladesh Sea Boundary Disputes Bangladesh has divided its mainland and territorial waters into several blocks for gas and oil exploration. Recently an invitation for tenders was issued for interested parties for exploration of 8 blocks under the EEZ and 20 blocks under the Continental Shelf. But objections were raised from India and Myanmar over claims on the peripheral blocks. A recent discovery of huge hydrocarbon reserves in the continental shelves of India in Orissa, and Myanmar in Rakhaine states has created the disputes over territorial claims. Bangladesh needs to solve this problem in the light of article 76 clause 4a and article 7 of UNCLOS III. The article 59 of UNCLOS III says that in cases where this Convention does not attribute rights or jurisdiction to the coastal states or to other states within the EEZ and a conflict arises between the interests of the coastal state and any other state or states, the conflict should be resolved on the basis of equity and in the light of all the relevant circumstances, taking into account the respective importance of the interests of the involved parties as well as to the international community as a whole. As per this article, Bangladesh should negotiate not only on the basis of equity, but also in the light of other relevant circumstances, particularly the basis of sedimentary rocks deposited from the mainland. I appreciate the Government's decision to move to the UN for resolving sea boundary disputes with our neighboring states. As Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar are signatories to the UNCLOS III, the matter should be resolved there. I also appreciate the Government's decision to conduct a Seismic Survey of the sea bed to update the available Bathymetric Records. But the government should not delay anymore to update Bangladesh Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1974 on the basis of UNCLOS III of 1982.