With the two countries having overlapping claims to the area, failing to come to a mutually acceptable agreement on the EEZ, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves, as of this Friday, an international tribunal has gave their ruling on on this dispute.
The Conversation
The much-awaited ruling on the boundary issue that has arisen due to the Chagos island disputes has finally been made on Friday 28th April 2023.
The question of which country the Chagos Islands belong to has been a matter of international dispute for several decades. While the Chagos islands may have originally belonged to Mauritius, during the 18th century, these islands became a part of the British territory. The Chagos Islands were then incorporated into the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a move that was opposed by both Mauritius and the Chagos Islanders who were forcibly removed from the islands by the British in the 1960s and 1970s.
While the main topic surrounding who exactly the Chagos Islands belong to, Maldives also became part of this decision due to the extremely close proximity of the islands to the Maldives. However, the dispute with the Maldives is not about whether the Maldives has a claim on these islands, it’s all about the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), which is 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.
With the two countries having overlapping claims to the area, failing to come to a mutually acceptable agreement on the EEZ, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves, as of this Friday, an international tribunal has gave their ruling on this dispute.
The ruling was made in favour to the Maldives with 45,331 square kilometres allocated to Mauritius and 47,232 square kilometres allocated to the Maldives. With this decision being final, the two countries have finally come to an agreement, after week long disputes and nation wide distress in the Maldives as the ruling was extremely important to fishermen in the Southernmost part of the Maldives.
“The Special Chamber, therefore, considers that the portion of the continental shelf beyond 200 nm should not be seen and treated as a separate and different maritime area of the coastal state, entailing two separate disputes. On the other hand, the entitlement of the Maldives to the continental shelf beyond 200 nm is uncontested between the parties” - The judgement passed by ITLOS.
While Mauritian authorities have agreed to collaborate with the Maldives following the ruling on Friday, the ruling got mixed responses from the Maldivian citizen. Though some are happy that the ruling was made in favour of the Maldives, with the country not losing a bigger chunk of the zone than initially expected, many, especially from the Southern parts of the Maldives have expressed their unhappiness as they are still losing a part of the popular fishing zone.
