Friday
26th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
President Nasheed. Photo: Majlis
The Speaker of parliament and former President of the Maldives stated that accepting Mauritius’ claim over the sovereignty of Chagos Islands is the same as agreeing to give away part of the Maldivian ocean.
President Nasheed made his statement at the parliament sitting held this morning.
Chagos was a Mauritian atoll years ago. However, when Mauritius was colonized by the British, they had relocated occupants of Chagos to other parts of Mauritius and began using the islands for military activities.
Mauritius initiated legal proceedings against the United Kingdom at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), resulting in issuance of an advisory opinion in 2019 stating that the decolonisation of Mauritius had not been lawfully completed and that the UK should end its administration of the islands as soon as possible. However, the UK has effectively ignored this opinion.
During the Maldives’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) demarcation process in 1992, Maldives entered into an agreement with the UK, the country which held sovereignty and ownership of the Chagos Islands. They agreed to the equidistant delimitation of the mutual EEZ.
Mauritius protested against Maldives when in July 2010, when Maldives submitted its claims to the United Nations for an extended continental shelf and new coordinates that claimed the full 200 nautical mile EEZ measured from Addu Atoll, the southernmost atoll in the country, ignoring the 1992 understanding with the UK.
Mauritius brought an action against Maldives before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
Mauritius has expanded claims of Chagos’ EEZ measured from new baselines, creating even greater overlap of their EEZs of some 96,000 square kilometers. ITLOS is currently hearing this case of territorial dispute in Germany. The Maldives is claiming 200 nautical miles from its suggested baseline whereas the Chagos Islands expects equidistant delimitation of the mutual EEZ.
Maldives has stood with the United Kingdom and endorsed its ownership over Chagos Islands since the beginning of the conflict. However, Attorney General Riffath Ibrahim declared Maldives’ newly taken stand against the UK, in favor of Mauritius, during the ITLOS hearing on Thursday.
Riffath stated that the President of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had already expressed those intentions to the Prime Minister of Mauritius in a letter.