The US Navy's Seventh Fleet did nothing illegal by holding operations in India's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) a few days ago, but it could have avoided publicly "thumbing its nose" at India, former Union Minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said. The US can be accused of "not respecting our sensibilities" but not of breaking international law, he said.
In a series of tweets today, Mr Tharoor said there was nothing in the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, the Law of the Sea) that backs India's stand on freedom of navigation through the EEZ.
The US Navy's Seventh Fleet stated last week that it had carried out a routine Freedom of Navigation Operation within India's maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ) but without its permission. Since India's policy insists on authorising such exercises, it took the diplomatic channel to register its opposition.
The Ministry of External Affairs' statement responding to the incident said: "The Government of India's stated position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea...does not authorise other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or manoeuvres...without the consent of the coastal state."
The US later sought to play down the incident multiple times saying the exercise was not a military one and reiterating that it valued India's strategic partnership.
Mr Tharoor today said, "The Americans are essentially doing near Lakshadweep exactly what they are insisting on doing in and through the South China Sea under the same Freedom of Navigation principle."
He said the best India can hope for was "an explicit undertaking" to inform the country's authorities about such operations in advance "as a courtesy" and "not to publicise" the fact that "they have thumbed their noses at us".
"Our diplomacy should have negotiated this; nothing better would have been possible," he tweeted, seeking a more pragmatic political approach than "outrage about" a non-existent legal breach.
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