India protests US Navy ship’s transit through its waters without consent

The US Seventh Fleet said the USS John Paul Jones had asserted ‘navigational rights and freedoms’ in the Lakshadweep islands inside India’s EEZ

But the Indian foreign ministry said that UN rules did not allow such passage without consent

Reading Time:2 minutes

Warships from the US, Indian, Japanese and Australian navies carry out a joint exercise in the Northern Arabian Sea in 2020. File photo: AP

Published: 8:27pm, 10 Apr 2021Updated: 8:26pm, 10 Apr 2021

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 (241km) west of India’s Lakshadweep islands, the US Seventh Fleet said in a statement on Wednesday.

But an Indian foreign ministry spokesman 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 Convention on the Law of the Sea is that the Convention does not authorise other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or manoeuvres, in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state,” the spokesman said.

India’s military monitored the movement of the John Paul Jones as it transited from the Persian Gulf towards the Malacca Straits, the foreign ministry said.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x