UNB, Dhaka :
Bangladesh expects to have control over nearly 25,000 square kilometers of maritime areas if it wins the case related to the Bay of Bengal maritime boundary dispute between Bangladesh and India.
“We’ll be able to know exactly how much area we’ll get once the final verdict comes out…we’re expecting that it’ll be within 25,000 square kilometers,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam told Parliament on Wednesday.
He came up with the expectation while responding to a supplementary question from Habibur Rahman Mollah (Dhaka-5) in the House.
Shahriar Alam said, the verdict of the maritime dispute between Bangladesh and India is expected to be delivered in June this year. “Through this (verdict), a proper and peaceful solution to the maritime case will be possible.”
He said the hearing of the case had been held at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Netherlands from December 9-18, 2013 where former Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni and a team of lawyers appointed by Bangladesh took part in the hearing.
Over the course of the hearing, both the parties have presented their positions on certain key issues relating to the maritime boundary between the two States, including the location of the land boundary terminus between them, the delimitation of the Territorial Sea,
the Exclusive Economic Zone, and the Continental Shelf within and beyond 200 nm.
On October 8, 2009, Bangladesh instituted arbitral proceedings over the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and India pursuant to article 287 and Annex VII, Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Permanent Court of Arbitration acts as registry in this arbitration.
Bangladesh won a landmark verdict against Myanmar on March 14, 2012 at the ITLOS and through the verdict, Bangladesh sustained its claim to the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic and territorial rights in the Bay of Bengal.
