Recently, India has increased its claim in the Central Arabian Sea, as part of its ‘extended continental shelf’ by nearly 10,000 square km but also modified an earlier claim to avoid a long-standing dispute with Pakistan.

Dispute over the maritime boundary

• Exclusive Economic Zone: Coastal countries have an “Exclusive Economic Zone,” (EEZ) which gives exclusive mining and fishing rights, upto 200 nautical miles from their coastlines.
  • This area extends unbroken from their landmass all the way till the sea bed.
  • All of this oceanic area is considered part of a country’s extended continental shelf.
• India made its first claim in 2009 in vast stretches of sea to a UN body, called the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).
• Pakistan in 2021 objected claiming that the area was under ‘dispute’, specifically, Sir Creek.
• In March 2023, CLCS rejected the entirety of India’s claim in the Arabian Sea region. However, the Commission allowed countries to submit ‘modified claims.’

About Sir Creek

• It is a 96-km-long disputed tidal estuary. 
• It extends into the Arabian Sea and roughly divides the Sindh province of Pakistan from the Kutch region of Gujarat.
• In 1947, India wanted it to be settled according to international principles of maritime law, called the Thalweg Principle (boundary can be fixed only in the middle of the navigable channel) in 1947.
  • Pakistan, however, claimed that Sir Creek was not navigable, so the dispute could not be settled according to the Thalweg principle.