[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] India protested to the United States for a navy vessel conducting a transit through its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without consent, the foreign ministry said on Friday, in a rare row between the friendly navies of the two countries.
The USS John Paul Jones "asserted navigational rights and freedoms," inside India’s EEZ in line with international law by sailing about 130 nautical miles (241 km) west of India’s Lakshadweep islands, the US Seventh Fleet said in a statement on Wednesday.
But an Indian foreign ministry front man said in a statement that UN rules did not allow such passage without consent.
"The Government of India’s stated position on the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Convention on the Law of the Sea is that the Convention does not authorize other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or maneuvers, in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state," the front man said.
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