Sri Lanka to claim Andamans' continental shelf

Pintu

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Do the Tamil tigers know about this?? I think the Tamils were in the Andamans before the Lankans.LOL
 

sob

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The last time I saw the Atlas I remember that Indonesia is the closest to Andaman Nicobar Islands. SL is way off. somebody must be in the loony land when he made this claim.
 

proud_hindustani

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Sri Lanka's such claims make me lol

"sri lanka" a tiny person standing near the foots of gigantic giant. "India"
 

Mohan

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This is nothing but wet dreams.I feel China is working overtime against us and this will not be good for Srilanka.They know we can give it back on the face but i have my doubts on our politicians.
 

Atul

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This Claim is ridicules, winning against LTTE, has probably made the Lankan's think they can take over INDIA.

A & N was, is and will always remain a integral part of the Indian Union. No Indian Political Party will be supporting this.

& if we go by the Sri lankan Logic, then probably we have another State (Sri Lanka) added to the India Union. :)
 

Sridhar

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I think it is the reverse , We are the one going to claim them . The below article has more info

Posted: Fri, Jun 12 2009. 1:07 AM IST

India’s seabed claim may lead to dispute with Sri Lanka



The claims arise from an international, UN-facilitated agreement that allows a coastal country to stake claim over seabed that extends beyond its exclusive economic zone
Jacob P. Koshy




New Delhi: Even as the general election was on in May, India quietly staked claim to nearly half a million sq. km of seabed that contains potentially large reserves of oil, minerals, metals and gas hydrates.
In the next few weeks, it’s likely to vie for another half a million sq. km, some of which may conflict with a similar claim by Sri Lanka on the unmarked seabed.


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There could be some dispute with Sri Lanka,” said a top government official involved in preparing India’s claim, “primarily because some regions that Sri Lanka has claimed are simply over-ambitious. We can definitely prove them wrong.”The claims arise from an international, United Nations (UN)-facilitated agreement that allows a coastal country to stake claim over seabed that extends beyond its exclusive economic zone.
To do so, the country has to prove that the seabed is part of its continental shelf, defined as a continuous sloping chunk of rock that connects the seafloor and the mainland.
Currently, a country is allowed rights to mine waters within 200 nautical miles (322km) of its coastline.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), as the agreement is called, allows nations to extend their claims to a maximum of 150 miles more.

On 12 May, India staked claim to large swathes of seabed under the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, which a government scientist involved with the survey process pegged at “approximately 0.6 million sq. km of continental shelf”.
Though a perusal of maps indicating seabed area claimed by Pakistan and Sri Lanka indicates no conflict with India, it’s India’s second claim, expected later this month, that can fall foul of Sri Lanka.
That’s because some regions that India will claim will include portions already claimed by Sri Lanka.

A scientist affiliated to the ministry of earth sciences said the “disputed” region was likely to be a stretch of seabed to the west of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Though he didn’t identify the exact region involved, he said this was a “major” chunk of the remaining 0.6 million sq. km India is looking to claim.
Also See Untapped Wealth Zones (Graphics)
Preparing India’s claim was part of a mammoth, five-year exercise that primarily involved research organizations under the ministry of earth sciences, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad, and the Geological Survey of India.
This included surveys of the deep ocean, estimating land depths as well as gauging the economic wealth within the ocean.
“We’ve never had an economic estimate of the wealth in our seas, but these surveys have given us a good idea of which regions to look for, say, gas hydrates or other hydrocarbons,” said Shailesh Naik, secretary, ministry of earth sciences.
Gas hydrates are crystalline solids consisting of gas molecules, usually methane, each surrounded by a cage of water molecules, akin to ice.
Methane hydrates are stable in ocean floor sediments at water depths greater than 300m, and where they occur, they are known to cement loose sediments in a surface layer several hundred metres thick.
Extracting this gas, may lead to tapping a new source of energy.
Spokespersons from India’s ministry of external affairs—who formally submitted India’s claim—and Sri Lanka’s ministry of foreign affairs didn’t respond to emails and repeated calls seeking comment.
There are no immediate gains from the exercise. In fact, India’s submission to the UN is unlikely to be considered before May, according to the Unclos website.
Any resulting disputes must either be settled bilaterally or be taken to the International Seabed Authority, a UN-constituted body that rules on mining rights in the oceans.
“Typically, if there are regions common to both countries, the UN’s International Court of Justice at the Hague or a tribunal makes a decision, and in many cases countries fix a line equidistant from their shores,” said M. Ravindran, former director at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (Niot) in Chennai.
Niot has been involved in some of the surveys to determine continental shelf depths.
India, which ratified Unclos in 1995, had a 13 May deadline by which it was to submit its bid. But it chose to submit only part of its bid, citing a caveat in the UN agreement to do so. “Since we are part of a group of countries in the southern Bay of Bengal, we are allowed a two-part submission,” said the government official.

Though the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea may not have as copious oil reserves as the Arctic Circle, where a host of countries from Russia to Denmark are staking claim under the same UN treaty, India has an ongoing programme to tap gas hydrates—a major component of untapped seabed wealth.The National Gas Hydrate Programme was started in 1997 by the petroleum ministry along with Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd, GAIL (India) Ltd, Oil India Ltd, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), department of ocean development, the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa and NGRI.
In 2000, DGH became the technical coordinator of the programme, and through a scientific cooperation programme with the US, acquired core samples of gas hydrates.
After the US and Japan, India is the third country in the world to have done this. Scientists, however, are cautious about the prospect of extracting methane from gas hydrates.
“I would not be able to tell you India’s commercial potential yet, because a lot more research has to be done. Very few expeditions have been undertaken yet,” said M.V. Ramana, a scientist at NIO who is involved with the gas hydrates initiative.
“It’s all about our future strategy. Only if we try securing these regions now can we expect gains from the ocean in the coming decades,” Ramana added.
[email protected]
Graphics by Sandeep Bhatnagar / Mint


India?s seabed claim may lead to dispute with Sri Lanka - Home - livemint.com
 

sob

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i guess lot of members here are wrongly interpreting sea bed rights claim on andaman as equivalent to territorial claim.
i thinks it has nothing to do with territory. it is just mining waters beyond their natural jurisdiction.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It is not just the members but even countries which get confused between sea bed rights claim and the territorial rights claims.

IIRC the recent incident regarding the PLAN submarine with the US Navy ship occured in the South China Sea. This happened in the international waters but China had the rights to the sea bed mining and used this to justify the action taken by their sub.
 

ppgj

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It is not just the members but even countries which get confused between sea bed rights claim and the territorial rights claims.

IIRC the recent incident regarding the PLAN submarine with the US Navy ship occured in the South China Sea. This happened in the international waters but China had the rights to the sea bed mining and used this to justify the action taken by their sub.
it was not on the basis of SBR, rather EFZ.
now, international waters are beyond EFZ. whareas SBR falls within international waters.
now, chinese grouse is that american ships came into their EFZ to spy on Hainan island where they have military facility. technically they are right. one can debate whether that happened or not according to which side you want to take.

China Warns U.S.Navy Ocean Surveillance Ship to Stay Away from Hainan Island
 

ppgj

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Sri Lanka News | Online edition of Daily News - Lakehouse Newspapers

Sea bed rights” :

Sri Lanka to merge with Andaman Islands

Irangika Range and Sandasen Marasinghe

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told Parliament that the Indian owned Andaman Islands will come within the area that Sri Lanka hopes to make a claim to as part of its sea bed rights, to the UN Commission on the limits of the continental shelf.

The Minister said that the Government will discuss with India on this issue before making the final submissions to the UN Commission.

The Minister was responding to a question raised by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake about Sri Lanka’s claim for its sea bed rights.

He said that Sri Lanka’s legal continental shelf submission is approximately around 25 times the size of the country’s land mass (1,725,800 square kilometres of the sea bed area).

However, the precise outer limit will be determined on the basis of technical and scientific data provided in Sri Lanka’s submission to the UN Commission.

He said that Sri Lanka’s submission is likely to be taken up for consideration by the Commission around 2025.

The Minister also said that many State parties including Sri Lanka has expressed dissatisfaction at the long delay in the scheduling of the UN Commission hearing.
This news is worrisome...
pintu, continental shelf SBR first has to be proven by sri lanka which means-

Continental shelf
The continental shelf is defined as the natural prolongation of the land territory to the continental margin’s outer edge, or 200 nautical miles from the coastal state’s baseline, whichever is greater. State’s continental shelf may exceed 200 nautical miles until the natural prolongation ends. However, it may never exceed 350 nautical miles from the baseline; or it may never exceed 100 nautical miles beyond the 2,500 meter isobath (the line connecting the depth of 2,500 meters). Coastal states have the right to harvest mineral and non-living material in the subsoil of its continental shelf, to the exclusion of others. Coastal states also have exclusive control over living resources "attached" to the continental shelf, but not to creatures living in the water column beyond the exclusive economic zone.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

it is nothing to do with claim on territory but on its legal right of exploiting waters, ie..if proven.
 

RAM

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Lanka never made any claims over Andamans: Bogollagama

COLOMBO: Refuting reports that Sri Lanka made any claims over India's Andaman Islands, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has said the country was only seeking undersea sediment rights near the Islands.

"On November 4, in response to a question that was raised (in the House), I never said that we are going to claim Andaman Islands or any of the Islands belonging to India," Bogollagama told the Sri Lankan Parliament.

He was responding to a query from senior UNP opposition leader Ravi Karunanayake about Sri Lanka's claim for its sea bed rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will decide the Lankan case for extending the outer limit of legal continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, which will also cover some undersea areas near the Andamans.

"It was categorically stated that our continental shelf lies below those part but in the event there are overlapping areas there is the consultation process which I have reiterated in my statement," he told the House yesterday. The minister said that five rounds of consultations have been held with India in this regard since the work commenced on Sri Lanka's submission


Lanka never made any claims over Andamans: Bogollagama - India - The Times of India
 

Pintu

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^^^They have denied it officially what they were planning to do.



ppgj , the point of worry means that the neighbour like Bangladesh having the dispute with us as well as country like Pakistan also having claimed an extended maritime zone which had created a storm of dispute though it , though it is not in news right now , but what if Sri Lanka just take a leaf from their book, that is the point I think.

I appreciate your points , a very well thought out and informative post.

Regards
 
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This is similar to the dispute between Bangladesh and Myanmar seems to be a trend any country that gets friendly with China then has some kind of dispute.
 

Emperor

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The height of pessimism.
SL has to hope that by 2025 it wont become 29th state of India nevertheless its claim for A&N.

Untill before the brits came to India,SL is used to be a part of India and is supposedly ruled by successive south indian kings.

May be we should have to follow the chinese logic here when the draft goes to UN and claim SL as part of India.
 

VayuSena1

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Lol!!! All these claims are really funny. Does SL expect India to hand over its Natural aircraft Carrier overlooking the Mallaccas?
Nice one there. Perhaps, this forum should be forwarded to the Lankan president. The man needs to realize that living in Chinese fantasies is not going to get him additional land other than the small island nation of his that he manages. Economic Zone or not, India's right to Indian ocean stretches from the peninsular region upto Malagasy bordering waters.

We can't help it if he and a few like him have established independent nations in our territory.
 

debasree

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do they have enough capabillity to use it,and dont make absurd claim ,i think he made it just for due to domestic pressure ,the same old bogey of india to get vote.
 

Virendra

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This establishes one thing. However soft a nation you may be, some elements at tiny neighbours would always project India as the giant bogey of fear to rally the herds behind them. So be ready to be demonised in all circumstances :p This is just the beginning.

Regards,
Virendra
 

Kunal Biswas

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Ok, but in my opinion the Huge area they are going to claim , this is worrisome to me , also they have decided to discuss with India before laying their claim to UN. Their claim on Andamans would be rejected by us out right, and what happen if they insist on its inclusion. I am inviting your views.

regards
X2..

Not to mention their shift from us to China..

In coming days Relations are going to be worst and possible WAR like conditions in next 20years or sooner..
 

Kunal Biswas

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The man needs to realize that living in Chinese fantasies is not going to get him additional land other than the small island nation of his that he manages. Economic Zone or not, India's right to Indian ocean stretches from the peninsular region upto Malagasy bordering waters.

We can't help it if he and a few like him have established independent nations in our territory.

The power the regain is coz of recent war they had against Tamils, I wonder what a Srilankans thinking ?

'Defeating LTTE = defeating India' ?

Also, what is our gov view regarding the subject ?
 

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