Maldives secures control over crucial sea region in Chagos Archipelago after legal victory against Mauritius

New Delhi: In a major legal victory, the Maldives has successfully acquired a significant sea region over the Chagos Archipelago, defeating Mauritius in a high-profile case. The ruling was handed down by an international tribunal, marking the end of a lengthy legal battle between the two countries over the disputed territory.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea or ITLOS Special Chamber delivered its judgement that grants the Maldives control over a crucial portion of the Indian Ocean, providing the country with access to important fishing grounds and potentially valuable underwater resources. The outcome is expected to have significant geopolitical implications for the region, with both countries vying for influence and control in the area.

In addition, the outcome is also potentially an election issue between the Maldives ruling political party and the opposition who blame that achievements are less and should have been more.

According to the legal ruling, Maldives has been granted an additional sea area of 4,687 square kilometres from the disputed territory, accounting for approximately 5 percent of the disputed area.

The ruling was delivered on Friday afternoon. Notably, there is an area of approximately 95,000 square kilometres between the Maldives and the Chagos Archipelago that is not covered by 200 nautical miles. In its submission to ITLOS, Mauritius had argued that the base point for determining the area should start from the Blenheim Reef, which is visible during low tide.

The Maldives however, asserted that the base point cannot be determined by a reef spotted during low tide, according to international standards. In the case of the delimitation, the Maldives argued that the separation from the sea should be determined from the coast of the Chagos Islands.

In its judgement delivered on Friday, the ITLOS backed the statements made by the Maldives in connection with the case. In its judgement, the special chambers of ITLOS ruled that there was no equivalent to the equidistance line to separate it from the reef seen in low tide.

In 2019, Mauritius brought proceedings against the Maldives to delimit the maritime boundary between the Chagos Archipelago and the southernmost atoll of the Maldives. This case once again brought the issue of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago into the spotlight.

Mauritius’ sovereignty over the Chagos

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recommended in 2019 that Mauritius should be the sovereign state of the Chagos Archipelago, citing the incomplete decolonization of Mauritius and the UK's obligation to end its administration of the islands.

However, the UK still maintains that it has sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago despite the ICJ opinion. The United Nations then had given the UK six months to process the transfer, which it has yet to do, and the US and the UK have resisted the move.

On November 3, 2022, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly announced that the UK and Mauritius had decided to begin negotiations on sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, considering the international legal proceedings.

Both states had agreed to ensure the continued operation of the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia, which is part of the Chagos Archipelago and home to a US military base on a leasing arrangement with the United Kingdom.

The UK detached the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 three years ahead of Mauritian independence. Thereafter, the UK continued to retain control over the archipelago, which is also referred to as British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

This was followed by the forced evacuation of approximately 2,000 Chagossians to lease Diego Garcia's atoll to the United States for defence purposes.

Over the years, due to the absence of any progress with the UK, Mauritius has taken steps to internationalise the matter of Chagos’s decolonisation by approaching various legal and political forums.

In 2015, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration criticised Britain for violating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by exercising control over the Chagos island group. In June 2017, Britain was defeated in the UN vote on the issue with 94 nations favouring Mauritius.  India remained on the supporting side of Mauritius.

The British, at the time of its independence, promised that it would return the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius when it no longer required it. Diego Garcia, the largest island within the Chagos Archipelago, was then leased to the United States for use as a military base.

This current engagement of international courts with maritime boundary delimitations in the Indian Ocean is not new. Bangladesh instituted proceedings under UNCLOS in 2010 to resolve its maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal which led to two awards delimiting respective maritime zones.

Maritime boundaries are most bilaterally negotiated by states, it is notable that Indian Ocean coastal states are often willing to compel the use of adjudication or arbitration when those discussions do not produce results.