Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India is fully determined to protect its legitimate rights and interests in its territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) while supporting the maintenance of rules-based maritime systems.

He delivered the keynote address at Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD) 2021, being held virtually.

First conducted in 2018, the IPRD is the apex international annual conference of the Indian Navy and is the principal manifestation of the Navy’s engagement at the strategic-level. The National Maritime Foundation is the Navy’s knowledge partner and chief organiser of each edition of this annual event. The aim of each successive edition is to review both opportunities and challenges that arise within the Indo-Pacific.

The minister said India is committed to respecting the rights of all nations as laid down in the UN Convention on the Law of Seas (UNCLOS), 1982. “We are fully determined to protect the legitimate rights and interests of our country in relation to our territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone while supporting the maintenance of rules-based maritime systems as mandated under UNCLOS,” he added.

United Nations Convention on The Laws of The Sea (UNCLOS)

• UNCLOS is an international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which took place between 1973 and 1982.

• The Convention, concluded in 1982, replaced four 1958 treaties. UNCLOS came into force in 1994.

• It has been ratified by 168 parties (167 States + EU).

• The UNCLOS lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans and seas establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources.

• It enshrines the notion that all problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be addressed as a whole.

• It also established three institutions: the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).

Internal Waters

Internal (or inland) waters are the waters on the landward side of the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. The coastal State has full sovereignty over its internal waters as if they were part of its land territory. Examples of internal waters include rivers, canals, and lakes.

Territorial Sea

• Under the Convention, a coastal State is entitled to a territorial sea not exceeding 12 nautical miles measured from its baselines. Within its territorial sea, the coastal State exercises sovereignty, including over its resources.

• Subject to the provisions of the Convention, ships of all States enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea.

Contiguous Zone

• The Convention also grants a coastal State the right to establish a contiguous zone not extending beyond 24 nautical miles from the baselines.

• Within its contiguous zone, the coastal State may exercise the control necessary to prevent and punish infringement of customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations that have occurred within its territory or territorial waters and to control, in specified circumstances, the trafficking of archaeological and historical objects.

Exclusive Economic Zone

• A coastal State may establish an exclusive economic zone not extending beyond 200 nautical miles from its baselines.

• The coastal State has sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing natural living or non-living resources of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil.

• It also has rights with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds.

• In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State has jurisdiction with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations and structures, marine scientific research and protection and preservation of the marine environment.

Continental Shelf

• Pursuant to the Convention, the continental shelf comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond the territorial sea of coastal States up to 200 nautical miles from the baselines.

• In the cases in which the continental shelf extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines, coastal States are required by the Convention to submit information on the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for its consideration.

Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CCLS)

• CLCS is one of the three institutions created by the UNCLOS.

• The purpose of the CLCS is to facilitate the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the Convention) in respect of the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles (M) from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.

• It has 21 Members with a term of five years.

• It is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

High Seas

• All parts of the sea that are not included in the exclusive economic zone, the territorial sea or the internal or archipelagic waters of a State, are known as the high seas.

• On the high seas all States have the freedom of navigation, of overflight, to lay submarine cables and pipelines, to construct artificial islands and other installations, of fishing, and of scientific research.

• These freedoms must be exercised with due regard for the interests of other States in their exercise of the freedom of the high seas.

• The seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof beyond the limits of national jurisdiction constitute the “Area”. The Convention provides that the Area and its resources are the “common heritage of mankind”.

• In this context, the Convention defines “resources” as “all solid, liquid or gaseous mineral resources in situ in the Area at or beneath the seabed, including polymetallic nodules.”

• No State can claim or exercise sovereignty or sovereign rights over any part of the Area or its resources, nor can any State or natural or juridical person appropriate any part thereof. On the contrary, all rights in the resources of the Area are vested in mankind as a whole.

International Seabed Authority

• An organisation established by the UNCLOS, the International Seabed Authority, organizes and controls activities in the Area, particularly with a view to administering resources in the Area.

• It is based in Kingston, Jamaica,

• The Convention provides that activities in the Area shall be carried out for the benefit of mankind.

• Both the high-seas and the Area can only be used for peaceful purposes.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)

• ITLOS is an independent judicial body established by the UNCLOS to adjudicate disputes arising out of the interpretation and application of the Convention.

• It is based in Hamburg, Germany.

• The Tribunal is composed of 21 independent members, elected from among persons enjoying the highest reputation for fairness and integrity and of recognised competence in the field of the law of the sea.

• The Tribunal has jurisdiction over any dispute concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention, and over all matters specifically provided for in any other agreement which confers jurisdiction on the Tribunal (Statute, article 21).

• The Tribunal is open to States Parties to the Convention (i.e. States and international organisations which are parties to the Convention).

• It is also open to entities other than States Parties, i.e., States or inter-governmental organisations which are not parties to the Convention, and to state enterprises and private entities “in any case expressly provided for in Part XI or in any case submitted pursuant to any other agreement conferring jurisdiction on the Tribunal which is accepted by all the parties to that case” (Statute, article 20).

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