The Maldives to expand its Exclusive Economic Zone
2007 June 07—The Island News. lk learns that Sri Lanka is effectively negotiating with the Maldives to expand its Exclusive Economic Zone, or territorial sea, preventing disputes between the two countries over competing claims.
Generally speaking, the “Exclusive Economic Zone” is an oceanic region over which a coastal country has living and non-living authority and extends 200 nautical miles (230 miles) beyond its territorial sea.
To determine the outer limits of the continental shelf outside its 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone—as stated in the United Nations The International Convention on the Law of the Sea—Sri Lanka submitted technical and scientific data along with other information to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in May 2009.
The Commission then formed a Subcommission to interact with Sri Lanka in 2016. The Sri Lankan delegation entrusted with the assignment has engaged in eleven negotiation rounds. According to an informed source, Sri Lanka has satisfied the subcommission by effectively establishing the outside boundary of its continental shelf. However, it is still pending UN Commission approval.
Under Cabinet permission last year, Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry established the National Ocean Affairs Committee within the Ministry to collaborate with this sub-commission.
The continental shelf is a marine zone with many rich mineral reserves, oil, gas, and fisheries. This area, in particular, has enormous commercial value. As a result, every State wants to widen its continental border to take advantage of it and seize as much as possible.
According to UN regulations, a country can have continental shelf rights up to 350 or 100 nm from the deeper 2,500-meter depth.
The Daily Mirror discovered claims overlapping in expanding the continental shelf with the Maldives.
The Sri Lankan team addressed the subject in bilateral discussions with Maldivian Foreign Affairs Minister Moosa Zameer. It was learned that the two parties agreed to work together to prevent disputes over overlapping regions.
