EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (Syllabus: GS Paper 1 – Geography)

Context: Sri Lanka has informed India that it will not allow any Chinese research vessel to dock at its ports or operate within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for one year.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

• About: EEZ” is an area of the ocean, generally extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles) beyond a nation's territorial sea, within which a coastal nation has jurisdiction over both living and nonliving resources.
• Concept Origin: EEZ was adopted through the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Exclusive Economic Zone of India

• About: India has the 18th-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with a total size of 2,305,143 km2 (890,021 sq mi).
• Coverage: It includes the Lakshadweep island group in the Laccadive Sea off the southwestern coast of India[2] and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
• India's EEZ is Bordered: West by Pakistan, to the south by the Maldives and Sri Lanka and to the east by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Importance of EEZ

• An EEZ provides a nation greater access to oil, natural gas, minerals, commercial fishing and other marine resources, freedom of navigation, international trade, national security, and strategic leverage over other nations.[
• Piracy, poaching or illegal fishing by foreign vessels, freedom of navigation, transgression of foreign vessels into Indian EEZ, and conflicting claims are major issues in EEZ.