Bangladesh wants bigger slice of the pie: Lodges submission to UN for exploitation of natural resources of the seabed in the Bay of Bengal

In its quest to get control over the outer continental shelf of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has made an amended submission to the United Nations.

Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Ambassador Rabab Fatima, made the formal request to the Acting Director of Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (DOALOS), Dmitry Gonchar on Thursday.

Fatima said Bangladesh expects that the amended submission will be included in the agenda of the commission in its next session.

Once it happens, Bangladesh will be able to explore and exploit natural resources of the seabed and subsoil in those areas. 

Sources said the original submission to the CLCS was made on 25 February 2011. The maritime boundaries of Bangladesh with Myanmar and India were delimited in 2012 and 2014 via international adjudication processes.

In due course, a sub-commission is expected to be formed which will examine the information provided by Bangladesh.

Once the authorities are satisfied with the appeal, necessary recommendations on the limits of Bangladesh’s outer continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal will be made.

Bangladesh has prepared the amended submission involving an expert team lead by the Maritime Affairs Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with support from local and international experts.