While continuing negotiations with India and Myanmar on maritime boundary delimitation, Bangladesh should build capacity to conduct physical surveys in the Bay of Bengal, so it may make proper claims with the UN Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (UNCLCS) in 2011, experts said.Pointing out a lack of proper political direction on the issue during the tenures of past governments, the experts stressed on increasing maritime capabilities for learning about the economic importance of the resources in the bay.
The opinions were expressed by speakers at a roundtable yesterday arranged by The Daily Star on "Bangladesh's Delimitation Issues with India and Myanmar" held in the newspaper's office conference room.
Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, welcomed the speakers while Brig (retd) Shahed Anam, defence and strategic editor, moderated the session.
The speakers said July 27, 2011 is the deadline for Bangladesh to file maritime claims with the United Nations (UN) in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The date however is not for determining the sea boundary, so scopes for negotiations will remain.
So it is important to take proper preparations rather than being frustrated about the issue, although much time has already been lost, they added.
They said Bangladesh can promote its national interest best by negotiating on the basis of equity principle, while India and Myanmar prefer to settle the issue in equidistance method which will not do justice to the countries in locations like Bangladesh is in.
Rear Admiral (retd) SI Mujtaba, former foreign secretary Barrister Kaiser Murshed, former state minister for foreign affairs Reaz Rahman, former ambassadors Barrister Harun Ur Rashid, Muhammad Zamir, Ashfaque Ahmed, Serajul Islam, and Shameem Ahmed, former adviser to the caretaker government Shafi Shami, AK Azad of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), Dr Uttam Kumar Deb of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), and Professor Shahiduzzaman of the international relations department of Dhaka University spoke at the event.
The speakers said amid a lack of political direction, the media have a great role to play through raising public awareness regarding the issue.
Commodore (retd) Khurshed Alam made a brief presentation on the maritime boundary delimitation issue, the historical background, international laws and conventions, as well as about the country's position, progress in the negotiation, and the ground reality.
He said a great deal of harm has already been done to the country by not taking proper action in proper time, and it will be too late if the nation fails to take a decision now.
He recommended setting up a permanent forum for dealing with the matter, redrawing the baseline, updating the maritime zone act, claiming continental shelf up to 350 nautical miles into the bay, and developing maritime capabilities to safeguard national maritime interests.
Reaz Rahman said Bangladesh has an opportunity to claim up to 350 nautical miles of the continental shelf into the deep sea fulfilling the conditions of UNCLOS.
After 2002 the immediate past government had trained some 15 officials of the foreign ministry on maritime issues, but they were later posted abroad, he said.
"The country should determine the maritime boundary through negotiations according to international conventions, at the same time the government should build capacities for the younger generation," he said.
Shafi Shami stressed the need for arousing a political will for delimiting the maritime boundary as the country has not moved much yet on the issue.
Harun Ur Rashid said Bangladesh had proposed a joint survey to resolve the issue with India, especially about South Talpatty during the 70s, but India did not agree.
Barrister Kaiser Murshed said the maritime issue is not a matter of a national debate but of a national consensus, so all should work together on the issue for the sake of national interest.
Serajul Islam said no professional approach has been seen yet for solving the problem, although the country has to file its claim within 2011. He suggested bringing technical and legal expertise on the matter under a single umbrella.
SI Mujtaba said it is regrettable that politicians and bureaucrats have failed to demarcate the maritime boundary yet.
He urged the government and policy makers to take the marine resources into consideration.
Stressing the importance of the country's marine resources he said, "We need to adopt a look south policy towards the sea rather than looking east or west."
Muhammad Zamir said the foreign ministry took many steps regarding maritime boundary, but all those seemed to lack proper planning.
Since the issues involve national security, political direction is a must to solve the problem, he said adding, no matter which government comes to power, it must develop some experts who will help the government in moving forward on the issues.
Dr AK Azad of BIISS suggested joint explorations with neighbouring countries in the bay, as ultimately the differences of resolutions are about marine resources.
CPD researcher Dr Uttam Dev said the negotiations should not only focus on sovereignty, rather should also take into account the economic importance of resolving the issue.
"So it is very clear, the negotiators should know what they are getting out of the negotiations and what they are losing," he said mentioning upcoming projected crisis of gas reserve in the country. So the country needs to focus on capacity building on legal, scientific and economic resources.
Suggesting use of the influence of international alliances during negotiations, Prof Shahiduzzaman said the country should not get stuck in a single strategy.
"We should think about the manifold ramifications of the issue. We should not put all eggs in a single basket," he said adding that Myanmar might even try to use its force against the country in the future.
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