Bangladesh submits amended proposition on maritime boundary dispute to UN-CLCS
It is expected that a sub-commission will be formed followed by a presentation on this amended submission by the Bangladesh UNCLOS technical team, after which Bangladesh will receive a ‘recommendation’ from the commission
An amended submission has been lodged to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) of the United Nations on Thursday (October 22).
Due to travel restrictions for the pandemic, Ambassador Rabab Fatima, permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, delivered the amended submission to the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) on behalf of the government, The Policy Times reported.
It is expected that a sub-commission will be formed followed by a presentation on this amended submission by the Bangladesh UNCLOS technical team, after which Bangladesh will receive a 'recommendation' from the commission.
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After the maritime boundary issues are resolved with the neighboring countries - Myanmar and India – Bangladesh would require the 'recommendation' to fulfill the obligation of Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982.
Earlier on February 25, 2011, Bangladesh registered a submission to the Commission in accordance with the Article 76 (paragraph 8) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, which determines the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baseline from where the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
The maritime boundary of the country was determined up to the limits of the continental shelf by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in the dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal in 2012 and Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the matter of the Bay of Bengal maritime boundary arbitration between Bangladesh and India in 2014.
Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has prepared the revised submission and submitted the amended proposal for further proceedings by the CLCS that can supersede the submission deposited on February 2011.
However, this amendment will not affect the locus of the proposition in the queue of submissions received by the Commission, which is 55 in number.
