President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has welcomed the recent verdict of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on boundary demarcation between the Maldives and Mauritius.
During a press conference at the President's Office on Friday, the President stated that the Maldives' sovereign territory was identified according to international law.
However, the Speaker of the Maldives Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed, had a different view on the decision, claiming that the ITLOS verdict resulted in the loss of a portion of Maldives' territory, including the sovereign control of Chagos Archipelago. He stated that it would be in the best interest of the Maldives to reject the verdict.
"Maldives' decision to relinquish sovereign control over Chagos Archipelago means that we have lost a portion of our waters. I believe the best decision for the Maldives would be to reject this," Nasheed said.
In its verdict, ITLOS allocated 47,232 square kilometers of the disputed 95,000-square-kilometer territory to the Maldives and the remaining 45,331 square kilometers to Mauritius.
Following the tribunal's decision, President Solih held a meeting with his cabinet to discuss how to manage the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in southern Maldives.
"It was decided to monitor the surrounding area much like the northern EEZ," President Solih commented.
The Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology were given mandates to oversee the activities in the EEZ.
President Solih emphasized that the Maldives' sovereign area is defined in the Maldives Constitution, which stipulates that the sovereign territory extends from the shoreline up to 12 nautical miles, in addition to the special economic zone given to each country.
"[However] the southern Maldives territory has been dusputed until the recent decision by ITLOS. When the boundary was demarcated from the region, a portion of the Maldivian EEZ overlapped with the Chagos Archipelago," the President said.
"We have signed an international convention which came into force in 2000. It was stated in that convention that any disputed territories should be demarcated," he said.
He said that the Maldives has not lost any portion of its territory in this decision, and that the full extent of the country's territory has only now been formally identified. President Solih added that any further areas demarcated from the Maldives would represent a genuine loss of sovereignty for the country.
President Solih reaffirmed the Maldives government's commitment to ensuring the protection of the Chagos territory and said that the decision by Mauritius at ITLOS came as a relief for Maldivian fishers.
President Solih said that when the Maldives previously had a 12 nautical mile area, the country did not have legal jurisdiction over any fisheries activity conducted outside of that area. The president said that the ideal approach for any disputed territory is demarcation, and Maldives received a major area from the territory based on the scientific evidence and satellite images submitted. "From now on, our coastguard will patrol the area which would benefit our fishers,” President Solih said.
President Solih also said that the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology will engage in discussions with relevant international bodies to ensure the protection of the Chagos area.
While the opposition claimed the Maldives had lost a portion of its territory, Mauritius received 0.960 square kilometers for every square kilometer received by Maldives.
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