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ShareCOLOMBO: Refuting reports that Sri Lanka made any claims over India's Andaman Islands, Sri Lanka foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama has said the country was only seeking undersea sediment rights near the islands.
"On November 4, in response to a question that was raised (in the House), I never said that we are going to claim Andaman Islands or any of the islands belonging to India," Bogollagama told the Sri Lankan Parliament.
He was responding to a query from senior UNP opposition leader Ravi Karunanayake about Sri Lanka's claim for its seabed rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will decide the Lankan case for extending the outer limit of legal continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, which will also cover some undersea areas near the Andamans.
"It was categorically stated that our continental shelf lies below those parts, but in the event there are overlapping areas, there is the consultation process which I have reiterated in my statement," he told the House yesterday.
The minister said that five rounds of consultations have been held with India in this regard since the work commenced on Sri Lanka's submission.
