Yangon accepts Dhaka's basis for settling sea boundary dispute

Jan 23, 2010, 11:58 GMT

Dhaka -Yangon has in principle accepted Dhaka's offer to settle their dispute over a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal on the basis of equity, a top Bangladeshi official said Saturday.

The lack of a clear boundary caused tension between the two neighbours over offshore hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal in 2008.

Myanmar and Bangladesh resumed talks on maritime boundary demarcation in 2008 after a gap of 22 years, but failed to resolve the dispute.

Bangladesh and Myanmar on January 9, 2010 had agreed to strike a balance between the principles of equity and equidistance to resolve their long-pending maritime border dispute in the Bay of Bengal.

'This is for the first time Myanmar accepted our proposal to settle the dispute based on the principle of equity; they (Myanmar) have earlier been pursuing only the theory of equidistance to demarcate the sea boundary,' Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told a press briefing on Saturday.

Bangladesh turned to the United Nations Arbitration Court in October last year for resolving the disputes over maritime demarcation in the Bay of Bengal with both Myanmar and India.

Bangladesh, however, kept open the option of bilateral discussions to settle the disputes.

'We will pursue two-prong approach - bilateral discussion as well as UN arbitration - for delimiting the maritime boundaries with India and Myanmar,' the foreign secretary said.

He added that Bangladesh would prefer for amicable settlement through bilateral discussion with both the countries.

Their earlier dialogue has taken place against the backdrop of movements of warships in the Bay by both the countries following Myanmar's alleged intrusion into Bangladesh's territorial waters for oil and gas exploration.

The tension was defused through diplomatic efforts initiated by Dhaka as both sides agreed that neither of the sides would pursue oil and gas exploration in the disputed areas of the mineral-rich bay until their boundaries are demarcated according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.