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Navy Journal 2019

d. The Bay of Bengal Maritime Boundary Arbitration between
Bangladesh and India by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on 07
July 2014. 7
Therefore, even before the glorious war of liberation in 1971, the Father
of the Nation recognized that the leadership are responsible for creating a
maritime Bangladesh. The above events can be called the Maritime ‘Aha
Moment’ as envisaged by the political leadership of Bangladesh to provide an
impetus - a strategy to start designing the maritime destiny of the nation. A terse
quote from Napoleon Bonaparte on the importance of time may also be recalled:
“Strategy is the art of making use of time”. If the title of the article causes ‘raising
of eyebrows’ of some critique, then the similar group of critiques “rose theirs” in
those days as mentioned above. Perhaps, it is quite logical to say that if
Bangladesh’s leadership did not have the “Maritime Vision” at that point of time
in history, probably the country’s landscapes and seascapes would look very
different today. By the same token, it can be argued that if Bangladesh does not
look beyond the Bay of Bengal today, and reckon in the high seas as an
opportunity given by the UNCLOS III, the current generation of ours likely to be
blamed by our progeny in the future.

Solonian Law Code Vis-à-Vis The Law of The Sea
Solon was an ancient Athenian statesman, who is still considered as one
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of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. A parallel can be drawn from the history
between Solonian law code and the UNCLOS III of 1982. Solon ended the
exclusive upper-class control of the government by the wealthy and introduced a
new and more humane law code. Likewise, signing of UNCLOS III on 10 Dec
1982 culminated almost 14 years work participated by more than 150 countries
from all region of the globe promoting the concept ‘common heritage of
mankind’. The context was about the question of the preservation of the seabed
and ocean floor exclusively for peaceful purposes. 9

The UNCLOS III entered into force on 14 November 1994 and is
presently binding for 154 States as well as the European Community. Like many
other signatories, as mentioned above, Bangladesh has already reaped the benefit

7. Details of the arbitration @ https://pce-cpa-org/en/casus/18:case No. 2010-16.
8. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Solon, accessed on 04 Dec 2018.
9. The Law of the Sea, UN, New York, 2001, pp1-2

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