President Will Recover Lost EEZ Area: Minister Thoriq

Climate Change, Environment and Energy Minister, Thoriq Ibrahim, has stated that he has no doubt that Maldives will be able to regain the area of sea that was lost as a result of the International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas’ (ITLOS) ruling which saw Mauritius gain some of what had previously been part of the Maldivian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The Minister was speaking at a ceremony to train at least one crew member of every diving fishing boat in Sri Lanka to rescue diver level.

The Minister said a large part of the Maldivian sea area has been lost and it is used by Maldivian fishermen to catch fish. The government is working to restore the area to the fishermen, he said.

“The President is now doing a lot of work to provide the sea area to the fishermen. Hopefully, the President will be able to restore the lost sea area to our fishermen in the south of Maldives,” he said.

Maldives has lost some 50,000 square kilometers of what was previously its exclusive economic zone with the ITLOS ruling last year on the delimitation of the disputed part of the sea between Maldives and the Chagos Archipelago. In addition, Maldives has lost the opportunity to claim the continental shelf it requested at the UN in 2010.

The government has commissioned two foreign experts to conduct the necessary studies before submitting the issue to ITLOS. The work has been awarded to the King's Council in the UK and a professor of the Law of the Sea in Malta.

The final report will be submitted to the Cabinet by the end of February.