Featured Image: Representational photograph | Credits: AP
In a move that could potentially cause a diplomatic spat, the US Navy has announced that it asserted navigational rights and freedoms inside India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near the Lakshadweep islands without seeking India’s prior approval.
Every coastal country’s EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles (370km) from its shores and the country in question has exclusive rights to all resources in the water, including oil, natural gas and fish. Any military activity in the EEZ requires the country’s permission.
In 2019 after a Chinese vessel that had intruded into Indian waters near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was repelled, navy chief Admiral Singh said, “If you have to do anything in our EEZ, you have to notify us and take permission”.
US Navy claims to challenge India’s “excessive maritime claims”
A statement from the US Navy said that USS John Paul Jones, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, asserted navigational rights and freedoms around 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands.
“This freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law by challenging India’s excessive maritime claims,” the US 7th fleet said in a statement on April 7.
The development comes at a time when the navies of India and the US recently concluded multilateral drills in the eastern Indian Ocean Region (IOR). France, India, the US, Japan and Australia carried out complex maritime drills from April 5 to April 7 in the eastern IOR to enhance interoperability among their navies.
FONOPs are designed to challenge coastal state maritime claims that unlawfully restrict navigation, says US
The US Navy regularly carries out FONOPs in the disputed South China Sea. This time, the US Navy conducted a FONOP near the Lakshadweep islands.
“US Forces operate in the Indo-Pacific region on a daily basis. All operations are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” the 7th Fleet statement continued.
“We conduct routine and regular FONOPs, as we have done in the past and will continue to in the future. FONOPs are not about one country, nor are they about making political statements,” it added.
The 7th Fleet is the largest of the US Navy’s forward deployed fleets. During the 1971 India-Pakistan war that resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh, it was the 7th Fleet that was sent by the US regime to the Bay of Bengal to put to pressure on India.
On April 7, the US Navy said in another statement that USS John Paul Jones asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Maldives by conducting “innocent passage” within its EEZ without seeking prior permission. It said this was consistent with international law.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) released its annual Freedom of Navigation (FON) Report for 2020 on March 10, 2021. These reports identify the broad range of excessive maritime claims that are challenged by the US government. “This year… US forces challenged 28 different excessive maritime claims made by 19 different claimants throughout the world,” the State Department said in a statement on March 16.
DoD’s operational challenges, also known as FONOPs, are designed to challenge coastal state maritime claims that unlawfully restrict navigation and overflight rights and freedoms and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms guaranteed in international law as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, the statement added.
MEA says US ship was “continuously monitored”, adds that concerns conveyed “through diplomatic channels”
Reacting to this development, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that India’s concerns have been conveyed to the Government of the United States through the diplomatic route. The MEA also said that the USS John Paul Jones was “continuously monitored” when it carried out the operation in India’s EEZ.
The Indian government further differed with the US Navy, regarding its statement that India’s requirement of prior consent for military exercises in its exclusive economic zone was in contravention of the international law.
“The Government of India’s stated position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is that the Convention does not authorise other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or manoeuvres, in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state”, the MEA said in a press release.
“The USS John Paul Jones was continuously monitored transiting from the Persian Gulf towards the Malacca Straits. We have conveyed our concerns regarding this passage through our EEZ to the Government of U.S.A through diplomatic channels”, the press release stated.
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