Joshua Alexander, founder of Maritime Frontiers. File Photo: Special arrangement
India and Bangladesh have resolved maritime boundary issues, but there are “grey areas” in the maritime boundary that pose challenges for authorities on both sides and require closer coordination, a leading maritime expert and consultant said here earlier this week. In an interview with The Hindu, Joshua Alexander, founder of Maritime Frontiers, an Australian ocean and maritime consultancy that has provided Bangladesh with technical expertise on maritime issues, said that during the Hasina years, Bangladesh had effectively tackled the threat of piracy near the Chittagong port, increasing its appeal to the global shipping industry.
“It was quite interesting to see that Bangladesh and India were willing to resolve their maritime boundary dispute. They both went to the tribunal and agreed to abide by the tribunal’s decision. But the boundaries that were agreed are not really simple,” said Mr Alexander, who worked on maritime issues with the Bangladesh government from 2009-21. In 2014, the United Nations Tribunal on the India-Bangladesh Maritime Boundary Dispute awarded Bangladesh 19,467 sq km of the 25,602 sq km Bay of Bengal marine area.
Elaborating on the boundaries that had been agreed, Mr Alexander, who visited Dhaka this month, said the maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal had areas known as “grey areas”. “The gray area is the area where Bangladesh has jurisdiction over the seabed, but India has jurisdiction over the water column – so there’s a contradiction. There’s virtually no way this area can be properly managed unless the two countries agree on how to manage it,” Alexander said.
“You cannot have Bangladesh allow the construction of an oil platform above the seabed, even though it has jurisdiction over the gray area, without taking into account that India will have jurisdiction over the water column in that area. So both countries will have to agree on how to work together on this,” Mr Alexander said, stressing that India and Bangladesh have yet to find a way to work together within their resource-rich jurisdictions in Bay of Bengal.
Mr Alexander’s comments came against the backdrop of Bangladesh’s caretaker government moving ahead with a rapid modernization of the country’s ports, drawing both criticism and praise. Welcoming the caretaker government’s move to lease Chittagong port’s New Mooring Container Terminal (NMCT) to UAE-based DP World, he said, “Bangladesh is a sovereign country and has the right to do what it plans to make optimal use of its ports. He also thanked the previous government of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for implementing security measures that reduced the number of piracy cases near Chittagong port.”
Mr. Alexander said that in 2006, Chittagong Port was among the most dangerous ports in the world due to the high number of piracy cases. However, the Bangladesh Navy has been working with India and the United States over the past five or six years to “monitor and respond” to piracy near the Chittagong coast, he said. Chief adviser to the provisional government, prof. Mohammed Yunus made headlines during his latest visit to China, where he described Bangladesh as the “sole custodian of the ocean” that could allow northeast India — which he described as “landlocked” — to access the Bay of Bengal through Bangladeshi ports such as Chittagong and Matarbari.
Mr Alexander said that while Hasina’s government had helped fight piracy near Chittagong port, her government had failed to take advantage of Bangladesh’s location on the Bay of Bengal and urged Dhaka to plan for the next half-century to develop its ports for future shipping trends that will include autonomous vessels and ships that require special security measures.
(The reporter was in Bangladesh to attend the Bay of Bengal Conversation organized by the Center for Governance Studies in Dhaka)
Published – 29 Nov 2025 21:22 IST
