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Maritime Boundaries: SOPAC Workshop on Maritime Boundary Negotiations

The Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) is holding a regional maritime boundaries negotiations training workshop from 3 to 7 October 2005 in Apia, Samoa.

The workshop aims to enhance the maritime boundaries delimitation negotiations capacity of the Pacific island states. It will focus on negotiating skills, the preparation of negotiating briefs, formation of negotiating teams, and the use of technical data in negotiations. 

The Secretariat is sponsoring 21 participants from seven Commonwealth member states. A total of 60 participants from 13 countries are attending the workshop. Kosi Latu, Special Adviser in the Secretariat's Special Advisory Services Division, said the delimitation of maritime boundaries in the Pacific region poses huge challenges for the small island states, especially the possibility of negotiating with metropolitan nations such as Australia, France, New Zealand and the US.

"The biggest concern for the Pacific island states is the unequal negotiating strengths in terms of expertise, financial and human resources between them and the metropolitan powers. Initiatives like this workshop are aimed at addressing this imbalance by building their capacity and confidence to carry out negotiations," said Mr Latu.

There are 45 shared boundaries between SOPAC member countries and neighbouring states. To date, 16 shared boundaries have been negotiated, with a requirement for further work on three of these maritime boundaries before they can be ratified. Another three agreements are currently under negotiation, with the remaining 26 boundaries yet to be negotiated. A large number of these boundaries are between Pacific island states and bigger nations. Many of these island states had, in the past, relied on external assistance to resolve their outstanding maritime boundaries negotiations.

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Pacific island states exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the living (fisheries) and non-living (such as sulphides, cobalt-rich crusts and manganese nodules, and oil and gas) resources of the adjacent water column, seabed and subsoil to a maximum of 200 nautical miles from the territorial sea baselines.

"Establishing the outer limits of their maritime boundaries through negotiation will assist Pacific island states to enforce their fisheries legislation and protect national security interests. A clear boundary demarcation will remove a potential source of conflict in the region and enable these states to grant undisputed rights to private sector companies to explore and develop offshore natural resources, which will contribute significantly to their revenues," Mr Latu explained.