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Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs)

Posted on April 12, 2021 by admin1  160

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Recently, India had conveyed its concerns to the US over an American warship (USS John Paul Jones) transiting through the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without prior consent.

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  • India’s domestic laws hold that any country carrying out military maneuvers in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) must provide prior notification.
    • While a country has full sovereignty over its territorial waters, which end at 12 nautical miles from the coast, it only has special rights in exploration and use of marine resources in its EEZ, which stretch to 200 nautical miles from the baseline.
  • US stand: The US said, India’s requirement of prior consent is inconsistent with international laws and the “freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs)”.
  • India’s Protest: India has protested this decision, and rejected the U.S. ‘s claim that its domestic maritime law was in violation of international law– (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
    • Seventh Fleet to carry out FON missions in Indian EEZ in violation of Indian domestic law (Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976).
  • The US has not ratified the UNCLOS unlike India, China and many other countries — does regularly conduct FONOPs in the contentious South China Sea to challenge China’s aggressive territorial claims as well as in other areas including the Indian Ocean Region.

Freedom of Navigation Operations

  • 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.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

  • It is an international agreement that came into force in 1982. It is also known as the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty.
  • It divides marine areas into five main zones namely- Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the High Seas.
  • It provides a framework for state jurisdiction in maritime spaces. It provides a different legal status to different maritime zones.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

  • The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
  • Every coastal country’s EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its shores and the country has exclusive rights to all resources in the water, including oil, natural gas and fish. Any military activity in the EEZ requires Country’s permission
  • It is also referred to as a maritime continental margin and, in colloquial usage, may include the continental shelf.
  • The term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical mile limit.
  • The difference between the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone is that the first confers full sovereignty over the waters, whereas the second is merely a “sovereign right” which refers to the coastal state’s rights below the surface of the sea.
  • The surface waters, as can be seen on the map, are international waters.

                                                 Image Courtesy: Wire

7TH FLEET

  • It is the largest of the US Navy’s forward deployed fleets. There are roughly 50-70 ships and submarines, 150 aircraft, and approximately 20,000 Sailors in Seventh Fleet
  • India had a close encounter with the 7th fleet during the 1971 war with Pakistan.

Source: IE

 
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