The Maldives has announced its decision to vote in favour of Mauritius in the dispute concerning the Chagos Islands. Attorney General (AG) Ibrahim Riffath announced the decision at the oral proceedings in the dispute concerning the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, at a Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Delivering the opening statement of the Maldives, AG Riffath noted there is a small grey area within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Mauritius in which the Maldives claims a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. He highlighted it was the subject of negotiations after the Maldives made its submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in 2010, adding Mauritius made a formal protest against the submission in 2011, claiming the area claimed encroaches on the EEZ of Mauritius.
Furthermore, Riffath said the Maldives was surprised by a significant expansion of the claim advanced by Mauritius. He said Mauritius claimed an outer continental shelf entitlement to the north of the Chagos Archipelago for the first time, overlapping by some 22,000sqkm with the entitlement of the Maldives. He said the only protest made by Mauritius was limited to the slight overlap with its entitlements within 200 nautical miles for more than a decade and the Maldives had no notice whatsoever of the new and extensive claim and the Maldives had never been given an opportunity to respond.
Additionally, Riffath also said Mauritius has presented inconsistent grounds for its outer continental shelf claim and has failed to provide even elementary technical evidence in support. He added it was in addition to the fact that Mauritius chose to carry out a survey only years into these proceedings. He said the survey’s results transpired to be largely irrelevant and did not meet the basic objectives which Mauritius had identified for its voyage.
However, Riffath cited a letter President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih sent to Mauritius, which stated that the Maldives would vote in favour of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution entitled: Advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. In a legal opinion, the International Court of Justice stated the United Kingdom (UK) had illegally split the islands and should give up control of the Chagos Islands.
In conclusion, Riffath said the Maldives had previously voted against the resolution but has now decided to vote in favour, adding it has done so with the intention of putting behind the difficulties that arose from the formal protest which Mauritius raised. He said the decision reflects the longstanding and steadfast commitment of the Maldives to decolonisation and to upholding the right to self-determination.