By IANS,
Dhaka : Bangladesh will approach the UN seeking to delineate its maritime borders in the Bay of Bengal with India and Myanmar.
Bangladesh claims over 450 nautical miles from its coastline in the Bay of Bengal.
The country has long-standing problems with India and Myanmar on the issue of “starting point” to mark its marine boundary.
There are overlapping claims by all three neighbouring countries because of the funnel-like coastline of the Bay of Bengal, New Age newspaper said Thursday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday approved her cabinet’s “position paper” which will be sent to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in New York later this month.
M. Khurshed Alam, the foreign ministry’s additional secretary for the UNCLOS wing, said: “The document was prepared following the Gardiner method under Article 76 of the UNCLOS.”
Under the UN provision, no claims submitted by a country should be taken for final consideration before settling the overlapping claims.
A country is supposed to enjoy its rights to fishing and exploring and extracting other marine resources in 12-24 nautical miles of territorial sea from the coastline, 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone and maximum of 350 nautical miles of continental shelf.