Omran Rasti; Ali Ashrafi
Abstract
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Conferences and conventions related to law of the seas has not been successful in convincing the coastal countries all the time. Some of these failures stem from vagueness in the law such as the drawing method of straight baselines, e.g., Bay closing line, and the ...
Read More
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Conferences and conventions related to law of the seas has not been successful in convincing the coastal countries all the time. Some of these failures stem from vagueness in the law such as the drawing method of straight baselines, e.g., Bay closing line, and the way in which baselines are selected. Gwadar bay, located on the northeast corner of Oman Sea, is a small bay between Iran and Pakistan. The most important goal of this study is to investigate the territoriality in the carter of Gwadar bay, the conformity of these territorialities to the seas convention law, the conformity and overlap of Iran’s baselines to those of Pakistan in carter of Gwadar bay, the drawing of the maritime boundary between Iran and Pakistan, and the location of baseline points between these two countries with regard to the maritime boundary. Finally, a suggestion will be proposed to solve any probable discord which stems from the overlap of baselines and territoriality conflicts.
2. Theoretical Framework
Political geography, as a field of study of human geography, examines the function of politics and power in the division, aggregation, and organization of space and, conversely, the effects of geography, spaces, and places produced in political processes. The most important concept that derives from the above definition is the concept of territory and its related concepts, such as territoriality and human territoriality. The political geography of the sea is conceptually and theoretically dependent on the key concepts of the political geography. Therefore, the most important concept on which the theoretical foundation of this study is based is the concept of human territoriality.
3. Methodology
In a descriptive-analytic method, this study intends to investigate documents and laws of these two countries with regard to the maritime boundary and territories. One of the goals of this study is to evaluate the consistency or inconsistency of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by applying these claims and territorialities on maps by ARCGIS software and conducting cartographic analysis.
4. Findings and Discussion
The first feasible step for territoriality in the crater of Gwadar bay dates back to the cabinet enactment on July 21, 1973 in which the coordinates of 25 baseline points in Persian Gulf and Oman sea were assigned and declared. Based on these points and their coordinates, point 25 is located on the surface of water in the mouth of Gwadar bay. Pakistan also declared the coordinates of baseline points in August 29, 1996. The straight baseline points, which is a continuous system, is constructed from connecting 10 points (a to k). Point a in this system is located on water surface in the mouth of Gwadar bay. The last endeavor with regard to territoriality in the crater of Gwadar bay is the common endeavor in 1997 in order to delineate the maritime boundary between the two countries. The aforementioned boundary agreement consists of an introduction and 7 articles, which is enacted in the legislative assembly. Based on the first article of this agreement, the coordinates of the points on the maritime boundary which separates internal water, Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, and Exclusive Economic Zone between Iran and Pakistan was declared.
The most important measure for these two coastal countries is to pass laws related to maritime area as well as determining and declaring coordinates for straight baseline points, and as a result determining the maritime boundary. Point (25) from Iran’s straight baseline and Point (a) of Pakistan’s straight baseline are located on water body and in the entrance of Gwadar bay, which has some demerits based on the convention for baseline drawing. In addition, drawing these two points with the aid of geographical coordinates shows inconsistency between these two points and overlapping two baselines. Mentioning the inconsistency and emphasizing the use of these two points with their coordinates may cause a conflict between these two countries.
However, Iran and Pakistan reached to an agreement in 1997, and determined a maritime boundary. It seems that point (1) is a good substitute for point (25) in Iran and point (a) in Pakistan since it is located in the nearest distance to these two points, and it is located in the estuary of the bay, on which the two countries have reached to an agreement.
omran rasti; ali ashrafi
Abstract
1. Introduction
Seas and oceans comprise over 70 percent of the planet earth always taken into attention in the history. However, the most important official and legal actions to regularize a number of claims made by coastal countries regarding the demand of the territorial and marine control and exclusive ...
Read More
1. Introduction
Seas and oceans comprise over 70 percent of the planet earth always taken into attention in the history. However, the most important official and legal actions to regularize a number of claims made by coastal countries regarding the demand of the territorial and marine control and exclusive ownership date the 20th century. The first conference on marine international law was held in Hague in 1930. The last convention on marine international law is the convention of marine law in 1982 applied by joining a significant number of countries. The subsequent and influenced coastal countries from such international conferences and conventions decided to approve the marine areas regulations, and define and confine the marine borders and continental shelf, etc. Between the aqueous area of the south of Iran, territoriality, definition and confinement of the marine borders and continental shelf in Persian Gulf have been noted more than Gulf of Oman, and even there is lack of research on territoriality in Gulf of Oman. Gulf of Oman has a significant strategic importance for our country due to its direct connection with the open water and Indian Ocean, and being out of the Strait of Hormuz. In this regard, the ports at the coast of Gulf of Oman can play an important commercial and transit role for the east of the country, national economy and even the neighboring landlocked countries.
2. Methodology
Through descriptive- analytical methods and by using legal documents submitted to the United Nations, this paper tries to examine territoriality in Gulf of Oman and draw the map by ARCGIS software. This study seeks to review the regulations of marine areas, the territoriality process of the coastal countries in Gulf of Oman, depicting the defined and confined borders on the map and using the middle line method in the non-demarcated areas by the descriptive analytic approach and using the marine documents and regulations and cartographical analysis and depicts the marine territories of the coastal countries in Gulf of Oman, and calculates different marine areas in each of four coastal countries.
3. Result and discussion
The sea has always had a significant importance due to its resources and benefits, and its importance is getting more prominent by recognizing and technological developments that has made the utilization of the seabed resources possible. The sea has military, geopolitical and strategic importance and Mahan, in his geopolitical theory, introduces the sea and strong marine forces as the source of power. Today assessors in the national powers of the countries consider the accessibility to the seas as one of the sources of powers for countries. The significance of the seas and the conflicts of countries benefits in the seas gradually guided them to regularize the ownership claims and territoriality in the seas. Hence, a number of conferences and conventions were held regarding the seas rights and various regulations were legislated, the last of which is the seas law convention in 1982. In Iran, territoriality in Persian Gulf has been more noteworthy than any other place, so that we can say the territoriality in Gulf of Oman is influenced by the territoriality in Persian Gulf, so that there is lack of research in this area. Iran, Oman, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates are four coastal countries around Gulf of Oman. This paper aims to review the process of coastal countries territoriality in Gulf of Oman. In papers and books published so far, attention has been taken to Persian Gulf, especially to the legal status of Iran to Persian Gulf. Hence, little studies have been done on the process of territoriality in Gulf of Oman and defining it on the map. This paper tries to cover this issue. The process of coastal countries territoriality in Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf dates legally and officially from the codification viewpoint to the years after holding the first conference on seas rights in Hague in 1930, so that the first law on the delimitation of coastal waters and supervision area determined in 1934.
Table of Claims to Maritime jurisdiction(Coastal Countries in Gulf of Oman)
Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone Contiguous Zone Territorial Sea Does the legislation provide for straight baselines UNCLOS Ratification Accession Date, STATE
DLM DLM 24nm 12nm Yes No Iran
CM/200 200nm 24nm 12nm Yes 17/08/1989 Oman
CM/200 200nm 24nm 12nm Yes 26/02/1997 Pakistan
CM/200 200nm 24nm 12nm In Persian Gulf: Yes
In Gulf of Oman: No No United Arab Emirates
CM: Continental Margin. Outer edge of the continental margin, or to 200 nautical miles where the outer edge does not extend up to that distance.
DML: Delimitation. The symbol DLM is used when national legislation establishes the limits of a given zone by reference to the delimitation of maritime
boundaries with adjacent or opposite States (or to a median (equidistant) line in the absence of a maritime boundary delimitation agreement).
Sources:
• Table of Claims to Maritime jurisdiction (as at 15 julay 2011) ؛
• Table recapitulating the status of the Convention and of the related Agreements, as at 10 October 2014
4. Conclusion
The results of cartographical and computational analysis show that in Gulf of Oman, the whole boundaries of which are among the exclusive - economic areas, Iran and Oman having the most marine territories and Pakistan having the least coastal areas, have the minimum share of marine territories in Gulf of Oman. The results also indicate that the process of territoriality and border confinement in Gulf of Oman have been a slow process, so that only segments were defined and confined out of 14 marine border segments and the continental shelf. Therefore, we can say that the slow process and lack of enough attention by coastal countries towards delimitation in Gulf of Oman is influenced by some of the geographical and economic factors and of course by the process of Persian Gulf territoriality.
