The hearing on the case related to the Bay of Bengal maritime boundary dispute between Bangladesh and India will begin at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Netherlands on Monday.
A Bangladesh delegation is scheduled to leave Dhaka for Hague on Sunday to join the eight-day hearing at the five-member tribunal. Foreign Minister AH Mahmud Ali, former Foreign Minister and agent of the case Dr Dipu Moni and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque are likely to be in the delegation.
As Dipu Moni is the agent of the case, the government is sending her to attend the hearing considering the country’s interest, said a diplomat.
The Netherlands-based PCA is expected to deliver its judgment by the first half of the next year, foreign ministry sources said.
The Arbitral Tribunal members are Prof Dr Rüdiger Wolfrum (President), Judge Thomas A Mensah, Dr Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao, Prof Ivan Shearer, Judge Jean-Pierre Cot, according to PCA documents.
Bangladesh is represented by Dipu Moni (Agent), deputy agent of Bangladesh and secretary of the Foreign Ministry’s Maritime Affairs Unit Rear Admiral M Khurshed Alam (retd).
On the other hand, India is represented by agent and joint secretary and the Legal Advisor of the Ministry of External Affairs Dr Neeru Chadha and co-agent joint secretary (BSM), Ministry of External Affairs, Harsh Vardhan Shringla and deputy agent Director (BSM), Ministry of External Affairs, Puneet Agrawal.
On October 8, 2009, Bangladesh instituted arbitral proceedings concerning the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and India pursuant to article 287 and Annex VII, Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Permanent Court of Arbitration acts as registry in this arbitration.
Bangladesh won a landmark verdict against Myanmar on March 14, 2012 at the ITLOS and through the verdict, Bangladesh sustained its claim to the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic and territorial rights in the Bay of Bengal.
Source: UNBConnect
