Editorial
Bangladesh's maritime claims vindicated
A job well done by FM and her team
Bangladesh's winning the legal battle with Myanmar in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) over its maritime right in the Bay of Bengal is a greatly heartening and positive piece of news. We congratulate the government, especially our Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni for her able leadership of the team that pursued the case at the tribunal under the overall guidance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Especial thanks are also due to the deputy agent and the technical backbone of the team Rear Admiral (Retd) Khurshid Alam and the highly professional group of legal experts who efficiently placed Bangladesh's case throughout the prosecution of the litigation at the tribunal. That Bangladesh could successfully convince the international tribunal of its claim reflects the fact that the team did real homework and placed its arguments cogently supported by adequate facts and figures and other evidences in Bangladesh's favour.
We further appreciate that the resolution of the maritime dispute based on equity, rather than equidistance, has greatly benefited Bangladesh since the international tribunal has given due consideration to Bangladesh's case in terms of its needs, population size, economic status, needs, GDP growth and so on. Now Bangladesh will be able to establish its right over the maritime resources such as oil, gas as well as fish and the entire aquatic wealth that lie within its territorial waters that exceeds its original claim of 100, 000 square miles.
The most relieving aspect of this dispute resolution between Bangladesh and Myanmar has been that that it could be done amicably keeping our good neighbourly relationship with Myanmar unharmed. And we must also commend the Myanmar government for its spirit of understanding so much so that it first agreed to Bangladesh's placing the case with ITLOS and then accepted the verdict in a spirit of good neighbourliness.
Now that the maritime delimitation with one of our neighbours has been completed we would hope that the issue of delimitation with our other neighbour India, the matter currently resting with the UN's Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, would be resolved in the same manner to the benefit of both the parties.
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