The government will disclose the outcome of the verdict on the maritime boundary dispute between Bangladesh and India today. "We have received the judgment copy from the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) this [Monday] afternoon," said Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury, director general (external publicity wing) of the foreign ministry. "We will share the outcome of the verdict with the media at 2:00pm
tomorrow [Tuesday]," he told The Daily Star yesterday. The Hague-based PCA delivered the verdict after nearly five years of argument and counter argument by the two nations, spot visit by judges and examination of survey reports. The judgement is final and cannot be appealed against. The PCA officially conveyed the result to both parties yesterday. Bangladesh Ambassador to the Netherlands Sheikh Mohammed Belal received the copy of the verdict at 2:00pm (Bangladesh time) at a ceremony at the PCA. Indian Ambassador in the Hague Rajesh Nandan Prasad received it on behalf of his government. As per rules of the court, no party will be able to make the judgement public before 24 hours have elapsed from its official handover time. Dhaka and New Delhi are expected to give their observation on the verdict simultaneously today, foreign ministry officials have said. According to the rules of procedure of the PCP, the verdict in the maritime boundary was due to have been announced last month. But it had been delayed for over two weeks due to unknown reasons. Bangladesh favours a principle based on "equity" while India favours "equidistance" system to get bigger maritime areas. Dhaka expects a positive result, similar to the settlement with Myanmar in the maritime boundary delimitation case in 2012. The verdict delivered by the German-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on March 14, 2012 sustained Bangladesh's claim to 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone and territorial rights in the Bay of Bengal against Myanmar's claim. Dhaka lodged the case against New Delhi with the PCA on October 8, 2009 after India unfairly cut off a significant portion of Bangladesh's maritime area in the Bay. Over the course of the hearings, Bangladesh and India presented their positions on certain key issues relating to the maritime boundary between the two states, including the location of the land boundary terminus between them, the delimitation of the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone, and the continental shelf within and beyond 200 nautical miles. The court concluded its hearings on December 18, 2013 at the Peace Palace in The Hague. The PCA is a permanent judicial body established by the United Nations in 1899 to facilitate arbitration and other forms of resolution of dispute between states. The judges of the court are Prof Dr Rüdiger Wolfrum (president), Thomas A Mensah, Dr Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao, Prof Ivan Shearer and Jean-Pierre Cot. At the PCA, the Bangladesh side was represented by former foreign minister Dipu Moni and Rear Admiral Md Khurshed Alam (retd), secretary of the maritime affairs unit of the foreign ministry. The counsels were Prof James Crawford SC and Prof Philippe Sands QC of Matrix Chambers in London, Paul S Reichler and Lawrence Martin of Foley Hoag LLP, Washington, DC, Prof Alan Boyle of Essex Court Chambers, London and Prof Payam Akhavan of McGill University, Montreal.
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