{"id":14772,"date":"2021-04-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/12-04-2021\/freedom-of-navigation-operations-fonops\/"},"modified":"2021-04-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T00:00:00","slug":"freedom-of-navigation-operations-fonops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/12-04-2021\/freedom-of-navigation-operations-fonops","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, India had conveyed its concerns to the US over an American warship (USS John Paul Jones) transiting through the country\u2019s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without prior consent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s domestic laws hold that any country carrying out military maneuvers in its <strong>exclusive economic zone (EEZ)<\/strong> must provide prior notification.\n<ul>\n<li>While a country has full sovereignty over its territorial waters, which end at 12 nautical miles from the coast, it only has special rights in exploration and use of marine resources in its EEZ, which stretch to 200 nautical miles from the baseline.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>US stand<\/strong>: The US said, India\u2019s requirement of prior consent is inconsistent with international laws and the<strong> \u201cfreedom of navigation operations (FONOPs)\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>India\u2019s Protest: <\/strong>India has protested this decision, and rejected the <strong>U.S. &#8216;s claim that its domestic maritime law was in violation of international law<\/strong>&#8211; (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).\n<ul>\n<li>Seventh Fleet to carry out FON missions in Indian <strong>EEZ in violation of Indian domestic law<\/strong> (Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The US has <strong>not ratified the UNCLOS unlike India, China and many other countries<\/strong> \u2014 does regularly conduct FONOPs in the contentious <strong>South China Sea<\/strong> to challenge China\u2019s aggressive territorial claims as well as in other areas including the Indian Ocean Region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Freedom of Navigation Operations<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Freedom of Navigation Operations<\/strong> involves passages conducted by the US Navy through waters claimed by coastal nations as their exclusive territory.<\/li>\n<li>According to the US Department of Defense (DoD), the FON Program has <strong>existed for 40 years<\/strong>, and \u201ccontinuously reaffirmed the United States\u2019 policy of exercising and asserting its navigation and overflight rights and freedoms around the world\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>While this is not the first time something like this has happened, this is the first time the US Navy has issued a public statement giving details of the operation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:624px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fff2cc; width:6.5in\">\n<p><strong>United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an international agreement that came into force in 1982. It is also known as the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty.<\/li>\n<li>It divides marine areas into five main zones namely- Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the High Seas.<\/li>\n<li>It provides a framework for state jurisdiction in maritime spaces. It provides a different legal status to different maritime zones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)<\/strong> is prescribed by the <strong>1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Every coastal country\u2019s EEZ extends to <strong>200 nautical miles (370 km)<\/strong> from its shores and the country has <strong>exclusive rights<\/strong> to all resources in the water, including oil, natural gas and fish. Any military activity in the EEZ requires Country\u2019s permission<\/li>\n<li>It is also referred to as a <strong>maritime continental margin<\/strong> and, in colloquial usage, may include the continental shelf.<\/li>\n<li>The term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical mile limit.<\/li>\n<li>The difference between the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone is that the first confers full sovereignty over the waters, whereas the second is merely a \u201csovereign right\u201d which refers to the coastal state\u2019s rights below the surface of the sea.<\/li>\n<li>The surface waters, as can be seen on the map, are international waters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/741459861436884200_image.png\" style=\"height:347px; width:556px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Image Courtesy: <a href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/diplomacy\/maritime-territory-continental-shelf-unclos-india\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wire <\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>7TH FLEET <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is the largest of the US Navy\u2019s forward deployed fleets. There are roughly 50-70 ships and submarines, 150 aircraft, and approximately 20,000 Sailors in Seventh Fleet<\/li>\n<li>India had a close encounter with the 7th fleet during the 1971 war with Pakistan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-indian-international-law-and-us-assertion-7266917\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, India had conveyed its concerns to the US over an American warship (USS John Paul Jones) transiting through the country\u2019s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without prior consent. About India\u2019s domestic laws hold that any country carrying out military maneuvers in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) must provide prior notification. While a country [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[56,30,34,35],"class_list":["post-14772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-agreements-involving-india-or-affecting-indias-interests","tag-gs-2","tag-india-foreign-relations","tag-international-organisations-groupings"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/5149545current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}