[New post] Mota Lava agreement demonstrates Melanesian respect for ancestral links—and for each other

WordPress.com dailyvanuatu posted: " The Maritime Border Treaty between the Republic of Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, signed on October 7, 2016 at Mota Lava Island in Vanuatu, has sealed the territorial boundaries between the two sovereign states. Prior to the signing, the boundaries had " Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on Vanuatu Daily Digest Mota Lava agreement demonstrates Melanesian respect for ancestral links—and for each other by dailyvanuatu 33 years in the making: Vanuatu PM Salwai and Solomon Islands PM Sogavare sign the maritime boundary agreement between the two countries on Mota Lava, October 7, 2016. Photo: Prime Minister's Press Secretariat, Solomon Islands The Maritime Border Treaty between the Republic of Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, signed on October 7, 2016 at Mota Lava Island in Vanuatu, has sealed the territorial boundaries between the two sovereign states. Prior to the signing, the boundaries had been under negotiations for the past 33 years. The United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) regulates maritime territories; however, there are cases where UNCLOS has fallen short from complexities resulting from overlapping maritime claims and cross-sections of delimited claims. Some such cases become hotspots for possible confrontation, such as the South China Sea issue. The negotiation of the maritime boundary between Vanuatu and Solomon Islands had been complicated due to the propensity to define each party’s 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under UNCLOS. The far eastern islands in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands and those in the Torba Province of Vanuatu’s northwest both have the right under UNCLOS to stretch their EEZs out for 200 nautical miles. The issue became intricate because the EEZs of both parties overlapped; that was the pressing issue. However, the terms of negotiation came to a close in November 2015 when both parties struck a deal in their final session in Honiara. This deal was the crucial point for the processes leading up to the sealing of the Mota Lava Treaty in Vanuatu. Both parties agreed to a median constructed line dividing their adjacent waters. The significant lessons learnt from this process are worth sharing.  Read more of this post dailyvanuatu | November 7, 2016 at 9:43 am | Tags: maritime boundary, Solomon Islands, UN, UNCLOS, Vanuatu | Categories: The Daily Digest | URL: http://wp.me/p2A4RK-1qt Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Vanuatu Daily Digest. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://ift.tt/2ff0gbe Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

from Gmail
via IFTTT