Sri Lanka opposes India’s bid to explore cobalt from sea mountain in Indian Ocean – report
July 12, Colombo (LNW): A new maritime dispute between India and Sri Lanka is emerging as Colombo objects to New Delhi’s application to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for the rights to explore cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts in the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lanka argues that this area falls entirely within its extended continental shelf claim and has urged the ISA to hold off on accepting India’s application until the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UN-CLCS) resolves Sri Lanka’s claim.
The ISA is currently following the necessary procedures regarding this issue, as stated by a spokesperson from Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sri Lanka’s continental shelf claim, which conflicts with India’s, has been pending with the UN-CLCS since 2009. Despite ongoing bilateral negotiations, the two nations have not reached a resolution over the past fifteen years.
The recent dispute over cobalt-rich crusts exploration intensified following India’s parliamentary elections, during which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party revived the controversy over Katchatheevu Island, criticizing the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for ceding the island to Sri Lanka and thus harming the interests of Tamil Nadu’s fishermen.
On January 18, 2024, the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO), an autonomous institute under India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences, submitted an application to the ISA seeking a 15-year plan for the exploration of cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts in the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount.
This move by New Delhi comes amid increasing Chinese research vessel activities in the Indian Ocean.
ESSO paid an application fee of $500,000 to the ISA, which operates under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to oversee the exploration of mineral resources in international seabeds.
The Afanasy Nikitin Seamount, located in the equatorial Indian Ocean, is an undersea mountain range extending 400 kilometers in length and 150 kilometers in width.
It includes a main plateau that rises 1200 meters above the surrounding ocean floor at a depth of 4800 meters, with additional seamount highs at depths of 1600 meters and 2050 meters.
India seeks to explore a total area of 3,000 square kilometers, divided into 150 blocks, each no larger than 20 square kilometers.
These blocks are grouped into six clusters, each containing between 12 and 50 blocks, and the entire application area spans no more than 550 kilometers by 550 kilometers, according to ISA documents.
