Freedom of Navigation Operations
GS PAPER III: Security challenges and their management in border areas - linkages of organized crime with terrorism.
Context: The US Navy announced its 7th Fleet had "asserted navigational rights and freedoms inside India’s exclusive economic zone, without requesting India’s prior consent".
US stands
- Its 7th Fleet had “asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of Lakshadweep Islands, inside India’s exclusive economic zone is consistent with international law”.
- India requires prior consent for military exercises or maneuvers in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, a claim inconsistent with international law”.
- Freedom of navigation operation (“FONOP”) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law, thus challenging India’s excessive maritime claims.
India’s stand:
- The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) does not authorise other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or manoeuvres, in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state.
What is FONOP?
- The Freedom of Navigation Operations involves passages conducted by the US Navy through waters claimed by coastal nations as their exclusive territory.
- According to the US Department of Defense (DoD), the FON Program has existed for 40 years, and “continuously reaffirmed the United States’ policy of exercising and asserting its navigation and overflight rights and freedoms around the world”.
- While this is not the first time something like this has happened, this is the first time the US Navy has issued a public statement giving details of the operation.
7TH FLEET: It is the largest of the US Navy’s forward deployed fleets. India had a close encounter with the 7th fleet during the 1971 war with Pakistan.
EEZ: According to UNCLOS, the EEZ “is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime” under which “the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State and the rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant provisions of this Convention.
- As per India’s Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976, the EEZ of India “is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial waters, and the limit of such zone is two hundred nautical miles from the baseline”.
- India’s “limit of the territorial waters is the line every point of which is at a distance of twelve nautical miles from the nearest point of the appropriate baseline”.
- Under the 1976 law, “all foreign ships (other than warships including sub-marines and other underwater vehicles) shall enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial waters”, innocent passage being one that is “not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of India”.
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