From the start, the Maldives has always supported the UK in its claim to the Chagos Islands. However, in a recent turn of events, the President of the Maldives, in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Mauritius supported the claims that Mauritius has over the Chagos Islands.
President Solih
The Chagos Islands, a small archipelago located in the Indian Ocean, have been the centre of a long-standing dispute between the United Kingdom and Mauritius. While the controversy dates all the way back to the 1960s, following the forcible removal of Chagossian people from their homeland by the UK in order to make the islands into a US military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, in recent news the Maldives also become part of this dispute.
While the UK and Mauritius have been disputing about who the Chagos Islands really belong to, the Maldives comes into this dispute for different reasons. Located fairly close to the Maldives, the claiming of the Chagos Islands leads to a major issue for Mauritius, who is claiming the Chagos Islands. For Maldivians, the biggest concern regarding the Chagos Island issue is due to major boundary disputes or the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), a zone extending 200 nautical miles from a country’s coastline within which the country has exclusive rights to explore, exploit and manage the natural resources of the sea.
One of the biggest reasons for this boundary dispute arising now is that the Chagos Islands have never been claimed by any country before, as it was incorporated into the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). And now that Mauritius is claiming their rights over the Chagos Islands, the Exclusive Economic Zone of around 95,000 square kilometres between the Maldives and Chagos Islands - less than 200 nautical miles from either side has become an issue as both countries are claiming their rights over this Exclusive Economic Zone, which is known to be rich in oil and gas reserves.
With this dispute between the Maldives and Mauritius ongoing for the past few weeks, on Friday 28th April 2023, a ruling was finally made regarding these boundary dispute, which stated that 45,331 square kilometres are to be allocated to Mauritius and 47,232 square kilometres are to be allocated to the Maldives.
But this is not the only problem that the Maldives has been facing when it comes to the Chagos Island issues. From the start, the Maldives has always supported the UK in its claim to the Chagos Islands. However, in a recent turn of events, the President of the Maldives, in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Mauritius supported the claims that Mauritius has over the Chagos Islands. This added an extra layer to the matter that was already causing heated discussions, as the President of the Maldives took this stance without the knowledge of the Parliament.
Following the news regarding the letter, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court of the Maldives on Thursday, 27th April 2023, on behalf of the former Home Minister Umar Naseer, Mohamed Musthaq as well as Lt. Col. (Rtd) Zubair Ahmed Manik. In their petition, the parties sought a declaration that the letter sent by the President to the Prime Minister was unconstitutional as the Article 3 of the constitution of the Maldives states that any changes in the territory of the Maldives must be made by a majority of at least two-thirds of the total number of members to the Parliament. With this, the petition requests the Supreme Court of the Maldives to acknowledge this letter as unconstitutional.
Speaking on the issue on social media, the first female Attorney General of the Maldives Aishath Azima Shukoor has explained why Chagos does not have to be a Maldivian territory to get the 200 nautical miles of Maldives’ EEZ.
In her statement, she noted that the Special Economic Zone, which is one of the maritime zones defined by law, is the property of the country and that it is an area where international law provides for economic benefits. This means that the fish in the sea of the Special Economic Zone, and any oil, minerals and anything else are the property of Maldives and are materials that can be used in the Maldives.
Additionally, the 200 nautical miles of territory has been defined by law in 1996 and submitted to the United Nations and as Chagos is not a country or state; under international standards the Chagos Islands may not be having similar rights as another sovereign nation. Furthermore, she also noted that the military base that exits on the Chagos Islands is to remain, and while all these points are in favour of the Maldives, the Solih Government failed to plead this in the tribunal.
