Indian ships leave disputed waters in Bay of Bengal

Anisur Rahman
Dhaka, Dec 28 (PTI) Three Indian ships conducting an oil
exploration survey in the resource-rich Bay of Bengal have
left the disputed area after high-level diplomatic talks with
Dhaka which had alleged an "intrusion" by the vessels in its
"territorial waters", the Bangladesh navy said Sunday.
"The ships left beyond the Bangladesh-claimed waters last
evening," a navy spokesman told PTI.

His remarks came hours after a navy statement said the
Bangladeshi naval ship Khalid Bin Walid intensified the patrol
at the area as the Indian-engaged Australian survey vessel CGG
Symphony and two other Indian 'support vessels' continued to
carry out the survey, backing off a little beyond Bangladesh's
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Bay.

It said the Indian coast guard ships and maritime patrol
aircraft were earlier seen for a brief period in the area as
their main survey vessel escorted by two support ships was
carrying out the hydrocarbon exploration survey allegedly in
the Bangladesh EEZ.

Bangladesh Saturday expressed hope that "peaceful
deliberation and diplomatic measures" would lead to an
"acceptable" solution to the maritime dispute with New Delhi
while it summoned the Indian envoy to Dhaka to lodge protest
over the exploration work by Indian ships in disputed waters.

"This year in September we began our talks with India on
maritime boundary demarcation after a gap of 22 years. We are
confident that peaceful deliberations and diplomatic measures
will ultimately lead to a mutually acceptable solution in
this regard," Foreign Adviser of the outgoing interim
government Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said in a statement.

Chowdhury said Dhaka requested India to postpone the
survey in the disputed area till a settlement on the maritime
boundary. "Just as Bangladesh respects international norms in
such situations, we expect and hope that all our neighbours
will do the same."

Chowdhury's comments came as Indian High Commissioner
Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty was summoned at the Foreign Ministry,
where Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohammad Touhid Hossain
handed him over a written protest, calling for an immediate
cessation of survey activities.

Maritime officials had two days ago alleged that Indian
hydrocarbon survey vessels "intruded" into the
Bangladesh-claimed waters. Two Bangladesh warships were sent
to the region to confront the Indian vessels.

"The situation at the scene remained calm and no tension
has been escalated," an official familiar with the situation
said earlier.

The region is claimed by Bangladesh as its offshore
block 14 of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), while India
claims it as their EEZ block 22.

The incident came a month after Bangladesh and its east
Asian neighbour Myanmar were engaged in a military standoff,
over a maritime dispute. The two countries ended inconclusive
talks on maritime boundary, only agreeing to continue
deliberations in future.

Officials and maritime experts earlier said Bangladesh
needed to reach an agreement on maritime boundary with its
two neighbours before lodging its claims with the UNCLOS on
the Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond the exclusive
economic zone of 200 nautical miles by 2011. PTI