Suriname’s request to expand its maritime territory, which recently won approval, is not worrying, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkette, who noted that they are required to sit down with Guyana and conclude an agreement delimiting the maritime boundary.
Rodrigues-Birkette said the recommendations made by the United Nations Com-mission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) allow Suriname to extend the breadth (or outer limit) of its national jurisdiction, not its (inner) limits in relation to other states such as Guyana.
Surinamese officials reported last week that its territory has been extended by 350 sea miles on top of the exclusive 200-mile zone every country bordering the sea is entitled to. A newspaper report said ex-President Ronald Venetiaan government has booked “the success” and he has since articulated that haste should now be made with arming the National Army to protect the territory.
Minister Rodrigues-Birkette, when contacted by Stabroek News, said Guyana also made similar submissions. According to her, the respective claims were made without prejudice. She pointed out that the extension of Suriname’s jurisdiction to territory beyond its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone has no consequences on the 2007 Arbitral Award or implications for it.
What Suriname’s approval means, she said, is that the two countries will have to, in the future, conclude an agreement delimiting the maritime boundary between the two States beyond the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone boundary that was established by the Arbitral Tribunal constituted pursuant to Article 287, and in accordance with Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on September 17, 2007.
She said that coastal states may seek to extend their jurisdiction up to 350 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of their territorial sea is measured, but are required to provide the necessary scientific and technical evidence in support of that claim to the (CLCS) for review and assessment. The Commission decides if that particular state meets the established criteria for exercising rights beyond its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone based on the evidence provided.
“The Republic of Suri-name, having submitted scientific and technical data to that Commission in Decem-ber 2008, has had its submission heard and reviewed by the CLCS and is now legally entitled to extend its national jurisdiction beyond its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone to the outer limit of another 150 nautical miles,” Rodrigues-Birkette added.
The De Ware Tijd newspaper in Suriname reported that “the success” to extend the country’s territorial sea was allegedly booked by a collaboration of the previous government, Staatsolie and Hans Lim A Po, who negotiated on behalf of Suriname to literally give Staatsolie more room to search for crude oil in the maritime territory.
Following the UN Arbitral Award in 2007, officials in both Guyana and Suriname appeared optimistic that the demarcation of the maritime jurisdiction of the two countries significantly enhanced their respective prospects of economically significant oil finds.
The Canadian Oil Com-pany CGX Energy is likely to resume operations in the very area from which, its earlier operations were brought to a halt by Surinamese gunboats in June 2000.
Further, Minister Rodrigues-Birkette said that Guyana and Suriname currently enjoy good relations, noting Guyana is looking to build on those relations “as is Suriname.” She said too that recent statements emanating from the country about the New River Triangle do not affect the relations the two countries share.
