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United States defends navy ship entering Indian EEZ
The 7th Fleet is the largest of the US Navy’s forward deployed fleets. Though the US Navy has conducted similar operations in Indian waters in recent years, these were not publicised, as it happened in the case of the latest operation on April 7.
The United States on Friday defended the freedom of navigation operation conducted by its 7th Fleet within India’s exclusive economic zone without taking New Delhi’s permission, calling the move an “innocent passage through its territorial sea...” and “consistent with international law”.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters 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 with its exclusive economic zone, without requesting prior permission and that’s consistent with international law”.
“Again, we will continue to maintain the right, indeed the responsibility to fly, sail and operate in accordance with international law,” he added.
The 7th Fleet is the largest of the US Navy’s forward deployed fleets. Though the US Navy has conducted similar operations in Indian waters in recent years, these were not publicised, as it happened in the case of the latest operation on April 7.
In a press release on Wednesday, the 7th Fleet had said that USS John Paul Jones “asserted navigational rights and freedoms” around 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India’s exclusive economic zone, without requesting India’s prior consent, consistent with international law, as required by India.
The Indian government’s stated position on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 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 statement added.
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 India’s permission, navy officials said, asking not to be named.
“If you have to do anything in our EEZ, you have to notify us and take permission,” Indian Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh said in 2019 after a Chinese vessel was repelled after intruding into Indian waters near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
