The Maldives government has said that it has replied to the boundary dispute between the Maldives and Mauritius before the Special Chamber of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
Mauritius took the dispute over the delimitation of the two countries’ maritime boundary to the ITLOS because Mauritian territorial waters overlapped with the Maldives Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the waters between Addu City and the Chagos Archipelago.
The Chagos Islands had been a part of Mauritius from the 18th century until 1965, when the United Kingdom separated the archipelago from Mauritius’ borders to establish British Indian Ocean Territory.
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) said the issue arose as a result of the deterioration of bilateral ties between Mauritius and the UK.
According to the AGO, the Maldives government has reacted to Mauritius’ allegations after it was determined that ITLOS had authority to resolve disputes over maritime border delimitations.
The decision was reached after discussions with the relevant ministries and government institutions, the AGO said, adding that such disputes are important to the Maldives as a fishing-dependent country, and that the government has assembled a team of hydrography and geopolitics experts to respond to the dispute at the ITLOS.
