NEW DELHI: The Pentagon has defended US Navy ship USS John Paul Jones assertion of navigational rights in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without taking prior consent from New Delhi, saying that the move was in accordance with international law.
“I can tell you that the USS John Paul Jones, a Navy destroyer, asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Republic of the Maldives by conducting innocent passage through its territorial sea in normal operations within its exclusive economic zone without requesting prior permission,” Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby said.
In a move that seemed to ruffle feathers, the US Navy on Friday announced that it had conducted a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) on Wednesday to challenge India’s ‘excessive maritime claims’. India strongly reacted to the development saying that it had conveyed its concerns to the US through diplomatic channels.
“India’s stated position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is that the Convention 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,” the ministry of external affairs had said in a statement on Friday.
The MEA also contested the US Navy’s 7th Fleet statement of April 7 that the freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) by the guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones “upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses” of the sea recognised in international law by challenging India’s “excessive maritime claims”. Kirby also said that it is the responsibility of the US to uphold the freedom of navigation and the rights and freedom and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law.