New Delhi: India will participate in favour of Mauritius at oral proceedings next month in the International Court of Justice’s ongoing case for advisory opinion sought by United Nations on the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
On Wednesday, United Nation’s judicial organ announced the schedule and the name of the participants for the oral proceedings on the Chagos question.
Mauritius has never accepted the legality of the UK carving out the Chagos archipelago as a “British Indian Ocean territory” just before independence. Besides the UK, the US has a big stake in this matter as it has been using Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos group, as its Indian Ocean naval base since the 1970s.
Over 22 countries, including the UK and Mauritius, have “expressed their intention” to take part in the oral proceedings which start from September 3.
The first day is reserved for Mauritius and the UK to make their respective statements. The next three days will see 20 countries, as well as the African Union, giving their views.
India gets a 40-minute slot on September 5, sandwiched between the Marshall Islands and Israel.
While the UK will get strong backing from the US and Australia during the oral hearings, Mauritius will have more bench strength, with the African Union, India and several Latin American countries on its side.
India has consistently supported Mauritius on the Chagos issue, even as it has been more careful in recent years to balance its position, with an implicit understanding that the US should have a continued presence in the Indian Ocean. “India certainly doesn’t want a power vacuum in the Indian Ocean right now. There is only country who will take advantage of it,” said a senior Indian government official, referring to China.
In June last year, the UN General Assembly, through a resolution backed by Mauritius, sought an advisory opinion from the ICJ on whether the UK’s possession of the Chagos archipelago was in violation of international law.
India had been one of the 94 countries that had voted in favour of the UNGA resolution on June 22, 2017. In the run-up to the vote, there had been repeated requests from senior US officials to their Indian counterparts to convince Mauritius to abandon its UN quest.
India had argued that Mauritius’s demand for sovereignty over Chagos should not be linked to regional security. Indian officials had claimed that it was due to New Delhi’s insistence that Mauritius had made the explicit commitment that the US could retain Diego Garcia as a military base, even if there was a change in sovereignty.
On Mauritius’s urging, India had also submitted a written statement to the ICJ in favour of its long-standing ally in the Indian Ocean region on February 28 this year.
In the written statement, India had reiterated that the sovereignty of Chagos should go back to Mauritius and that the process of decolonisation should be completed.
While Mauritius had called upon India to submit a written statement before the ICJ, there had been internal debate at Raisina Hill over whether New Delhi should take the step to present a legal argument.
This time too, it is likely that there were requests from Port Louis that India make an even more public show of support by taking part in the oral proceedings at the ICJ.