India Raises Concerns With United States Over US Navy's 'Unauthorised' Military Manoeuvre In Indian Seas

India has registered diplomatic concerns with the United States over US Navy conducting patrols in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without consent to assert its ‘navigational rights and freedoms’.

“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 military exercises or manoeuvres, in particular those involving weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Friday (9 April).

The USS John Paul Jones had transited from the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Straits and had passed through the Indian EEZ off the Lakshwadeep Islands in this process.

The US has conducted such operations in the past but hardly ever announced it publicly in a provocative manner as in this case. The US warship was closely monitored during its transit in India's EEZ but wasn’t challenged as both the concerned countries maintain friendly maritime relations.

The US claimed that it had routinely carried out such operations previously and will continue to do so in the coming times, reports Economic Times.