Bangladesh gets 19,467 sq-km Bay area

Bangladesh gets 19,467 square-kilometres of the 25,000 square-kilometres disputed area with India in the Bay of Bengal. Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali disclosed the verdict of the case related to the maritime dispute between Bangladesh and India from the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
The minister also thanked India for accepting the verdict. He mentioned the verdict as a win for both the countries.
“This is a victory of friendship between Bangladesh and India. The Maritime dispute between the two countries has come to an end following the verdict,” said Mahmood Ali.
The minister said the verdict would take the relationship between the two neighbouring counties one step forward.
Earlier, Dhaka received the copy of the judgment on Monday.
The court has informed both parties of the verdict but an embargo restricts them from making it public before the passing of 24 hours.
Bangladesh went in for arbitration over the delimitation of maritime boundary under the United Nations Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) on Oct 8, 2009.
The hearings ended in Dec last year when both sides argued their case before the PCA at the Netherlands capital, The Hague.
The argument focused on issues including the location of the land boundary terminus, the delimitation of the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone, and the continental shelf within and beyond 200 nautical miles.
Bangladesh had earlier won an arbitration case against Myanmar over the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal in 2012 at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg.
Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, former foreign minister Dipu Moni, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque and Secretary for Maritime Affairs Mohammad Khurshed Alam had spoken in the last hearing in December.
Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati led the Indian side.
Lawrence Martin, Professor Philippe Sands, Professor Payam Akhavan, Paul Reichler, Professor Alan Boyle, and Professor James Crawford argued for Bangladesh.
RKP Shankardass, Professor Alain Pellet, Professor Michael Reisman, and Sir Michael Wood KCMG argued on behalf of India.
Judge Rüdiger Wolfrum from Germany is the President of the Arbitration tribunal while Judge Jean-Pierre Cot from France, Judge Thomas A Mensah from Ghana and Dr Pemmaraju Sreenivasa were the other members, according to the PCA.