Abstract
The South Asian region, dominating the northern half of the Indian Ocean and extending from the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca, occupies an important strategic location in an area that has been hotbed of international politics and conflicts for more than two decades. Inhabited by almost one-fifth of the human race in about three percent of the world’s land surface, whose magnitude of deprivation is matched only by their desire to have a place in the sun, all of these countries have emerged from colonial domination after the Second World War. Geographically, besides the seven countries of the Indian subcontinent with common land frontiers — Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Burma—the region includes Sri Lanka and Maldives Islands with common maritime borders with India.
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References
Covering an area of 3.28 million square kilometers (sq.km.), India has a population more than a billion. Bangladesh, the second most populous country in South Asia, has an area of 144,020 sq.km. and a population of 100.59 million. Situated in the Eastern Himalayas and bounded on the east-west and south by India, Bhutan covers an area of 46,600 sq.km. and has a population a little over one million. Pakistan has a total area of 804,000 sq.km. and a population of about 94.93 million. The Republic of Maldives, 400 miles southwest of Sri Lanka, consists of some 2000 low-lying coral islands (only 220 inhabited) covering an area of 298 sq.km. and a population of.195 million. Nepal covers an area of 147,400 sq.km. and has an estimated population of 16.14 million. Sri Lanka, lying south-west of India, has a total area of 65,610 sq.km. and has a population of 16.4 million. See SAARC Perspective, vol. 1, no. 3 (1987); Asia Year Book (1989).
See Emajuddin Ahamad, SAARC: Seeds of Harmony (Dhaka, 1985), pp. 44–45. See table, p. 46. According to another permutation, within South Asia, India is said to account roughly 76 percent of the population; 79 percent GOP; 68 percent of manufacturing exports; 62 percent of the import market; 41 percent of external reserves; 46 percent of the total armed forces; and 72 percent of estimated defense spending/see Iftekharuzzaman, “Bangladesh and SAARC Reflections on the Region and Motivations for Cooperation,” in Muzaffar Ahmad and Abul Kalam (eds.) Bangladesh Foreign Relations: Changes and Directions (Dhaka, 1989), p. 81 (hereafter cited as BFR). Also some 85 percent of the land under permanent cultivation and 70 percent of the irrigated land of the region is in India. See Abul Kalam, “Bangladesh and India: A Perspective of Cooperative Relationship in a Regional Strategic Environment,” in Muzaffar Ahmad and Abul Kalam, BFR, p. 96.
See V. Suryanarayan, “Partners in Progress or Uneasy Coexistence? An Indian View,” The Island (Colombo: July 26, 1985).
Bangladesh and Pakistan are the eighth and ninth most populous countries in the world. Indeed, except for Bhutan and Maldives, the other nations of the region, including Sri Lanks, and Nepal, by international standards, come within the top 30 percent of the nations of the world. See M.D. Dharamdasani (ed.) Contemporary South Asia (Varanasi, 1985), p. 20.
See Mohammad Iqbal, “SAARC: The Urge for Cooperation in South Asia,” Regional Studiesvol. IV, no. 4 (Islamabad: Autumn 1986), p. 49.
See A.l. Akram, “Security of Small States: Implications for South Asia,” Regional Studies, vol III, n. 3 (Islamabad: Summer 1985), p. 8; hereafter cited as “Security”.
See also A.L Akram, “India and Pakistan: A Glorious Future,” Regional Studies, vol. II, n. 3 (Islamabad: Spring 1984), p. 34.
See Akram, “Security,” p. 8.
Iftekharuzzaman, “Bangladesh and SAARC: Reflections on the Region and Motivations for Cooperation,” in Ahmad and Kalam, BFR, p. 79.
See Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, n. 81, March 22, 1956.
Presidential Proclamation of 3 December 1956 in UN Doc., A/Conf 19/5.
The Parliament passed the Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and other Maritime Zones Act in 1976. See Myron Nordquist, S. Houston Lay, Kenneth R. Simmonds, New Directions in the Law of the Sea, vol. V (London, Oceana Publications, 1986), p. 306. Hereafter cited as New Directions.
U.S. Dept. of State, Office of the Geographer, Limits in the Seas, no. 46, August 12, 1972.
See Rama Puri, India and National Jurisdiction in the Sea (New Delhi, 1985), p. 135. Hereafter cited as India and Nat. Jur.
Gazette of India Extraordinary (New Delhi), Part II, Section 3, quoted in Rama Puri India and Nat. Jur., p. 121.
See Rama Puri, India and Nat. Jur., p. 121.
ICJ Reports (1969), p. 22.
Nordquist, New Directions, Article 6(1), p. 308.
Ibid., Article 7(1), Maritime Zones Act, p. 310.
See Puri, India and Nat. Jur., p. 135.
See Ted L. McDorman, “Extended Jurisdiction and Ocean Resource Conflict in the Indian Ocean,” International Journal of Estuarine and Coastal Law, 3 (1988): 234. Hereafter cited as “Ext. Jur. and Ocean Resource Conflict.”
See H.N. Siddique and P.S. Rao, “Exploration for Polymetallic Nodules in the Indian Ocean,” Ocean Development and International Law Journal 19 (1988), pp. 323–35. See also S.P. Jagota, “Recent Developments in the Law of the Sea,” Ocean Yearbook 7 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989), pp. 65 ff.
See Institute of Regional Study, Islamabad, “The Law of the Sea: Its Impacts on Inter-State Relations in South Asia, Spotlight on Regional Affairs, VII (May-June 1988), pp. 5–8, 10–16.
Pakistan earlier claimed seabed extending to 100 fathoms contour and signed the Continental Shelf Convention though it did not ratify it. In 1966, Pakistan claimed 12 miles of exclusive fishing zone and 100 km. of conservation zone. See M. Habibur Rahman, “Delineation of Maritime Boundaries,” Asian Survey 24 (December 1986), pp. 1307. Hereafter cited as “Delineation.”
See The Kutch-Sind Border Question (New Delhi: Indian Society of International Law, 1965).
See R.P. Anand, “The Kutch Award,” in R.P. Anand, Studies in International Adjudication (New Delhi, 1968).
See Rahman, n. 24, p. 1306.
Ibid.
Vide UN General Assembly Resolution 3487 (XXX).
See Rahman, n. 24, p 1306.
See Bangladesh’s Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act, 1974 and announcement about maritime zones, Myron Nordquist, S. Houston Lay, Kenneth R. Simmonds, “New Directions,” p. 201 II.
See Rahman, “Delineation,” p. 1311.
See R. Platzoeder, The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea: Documents, vol. IV (Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, Inc., 1983), pp. 389 ff.
See Manjula Shyam, “Extended Maritime Jurisdiction and its Impact on South Asia,” Ocean Development and International Law, 10 (1981–82), p. 102; hereafter cited as “Extended Jurisdiction.” See also Rahman, “Delineation,” pp. 1312–13.
See Shyam, “Extended Jurisdiction,” p. 102. It is interesting to note that Vietnam is the only country that supported Bangladesh’s claim because, it is said, it was in a similar situation. See Sally McDonald and Victor Prescott, “Baselines along Unstable Coast: An Interpretation of Article 7(2),” Ocean Yearbook 8 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), p. 74. Hereafter cited as “Baselines.”
See J.R. V. Prescott, The Maritime Political Boundaries of the World (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1985), pp. 163–66; hereafter cited as Maritime Boundaries. See also McDonald and Prescott, “Baselines,” p. 83.
Shyam, “Extended Jurisdiction,” pp. 100–101.
See Prescott, Maritime Boundaries, p. 176. Recently it was reported that the disputed New Moore or South Talpatty Island was getting smaller and gradually facing extinction following consistent wave action and other natural calamities of the Bay of Bengal. See The Hindu (Madras: December 26, 1989).
See UN Doc. A/Conf 62/1.51 and NG 6/5; also Puri, India and Nat Jur., p. 142.
See Annex II to the 1982 Convention.
See Bernard Oxman, “The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea: The Eighth Session (1979),” American Journal of International Law 74 (January 1980), pp. 23–33. See also Shyam, “Extended Jurisdiction,” p: 110.
See Shyam, “Extended Jurisdiction,” pp. 104–105; see also U.S. Dept. of State, “Historic Water Boundary: India-Sri Lanka,” Limits in the Seas, no. 66 (December 12, 1975).
See 1974 India-Sri Lanka agreement, and their agreement establishing maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Manaar and the Bay of Bengal, U.S. Department of State, Limits in the Sea, no. 77 (February 16, 1978).
See Limits in the Sea, no. 77, p. 4.
See for an exhaustive discussion of the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar, P. Chandrasekhara Rao, The New Law of Maritime Zones; With Special Reference to India’s Maritime Zones (New Delhi, 1983), p. 68.
Ibid., p. 75.
See Shyam, “Extended Jurisdiction,” p. 105.
See S.P. Jagota, Maritime Boundary (Dordrecht: M. Nijhoff, 1985), p. 80.
Some, such as Male, the capital and the only town in the country, are one mile long. Some islands are two or three miles long, but are quite narrow. The largest island in Maldives is Fu Mulaku, which is three-and-one-half by one-and-one-half miles and has a lake in the middle. See Clarence Maloney, People of the Maldive Islands (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1980), pp. 1–3.
See Prescott, Maritime Boundaries, p. 161.
Dept. of State, “Maritime Boundary: India, Maldives and Maldives’ Claimed ‘Economic Zone,” Limits in the Sea, no. 78.
See Prescott, Maritime Boundaries, p. 161.
See Prescott, Maritime Boundaries, p. 166; and Kriangsak Kittichaisaree, The Law of the Sea and Maritime Boundary Delimitation in South-East Asia (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 13–14.
The Gulf is very shallow (between 2 to 5 fathoms deep), because several rivers flow into it, contributing to sediment buildup in the area. Moreover, composed of mud and sand, the mouth of the Rangoon River is very unstable and extends for a distance of about five miles. See Indian Naval Hydrographie Office, Rangoon River to Moubnein (Govt. Printing Office, Map. no. 411, 1985); also U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, Rangoon River and Approaches (Govt. Printing Office, Map. no. 63413, 1978).
See Prescott, Maritime Boundaries, p. 176.
See Ted L. McDorman, “Ext. Jur. and Ocean Resource Conflict,” n. 21, p. 217.
U.S. Dept. of State, “Maritime Boundary: Burma-Thailand,” Limits in the Sea, no. 102 (January 30, 1985).
Statement by the delegate of Nepal, 191st Meeting, Dec. 1982, para 8, p. 101.
Ibid., paras. 112 and 14, p. 109. See also “The Law of the Sea: Its Impact in Inter-State Relations in South Asia,” Spotlight on Regional Affairs (Islamabad, May- June 1988), pp. 11 ff.
See Shyam, “Extended Jurisdiction,” pp. 106–107.
See McDorman, “Ext. Jur. and Ocean Resource Conflict,” n. 21, p. 213.
See India, The United States and the Indian Ocean, Report of the In do-American Task Force on the Indian Ocean (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment, 1985), p. 92.
McDorman, “Ext. Jur. and Ocean Resource Conflict,” n. 21, p. 214.
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Anand, R.P. (2004). South Asia and the Law of the Sea: Problems and Prospects. In: Studies in International Law and History. Developments in International Law. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5600-6_8
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