Monday 13 May 2013

Nicaragua said may want more of Colombian seas after Hague ruling

Nicaragua's representative before the International Court at The Hague told media on 11 May that his country had a right to claim more of Colombia's seas following a Hague Court ruling in 2012 that advanced Nicaragua's Caribbean frontier at Colombia's expense. The 19 November ruling provoked fury in Colombia and its President declared Colombia would in the future cease to submit to the Court's arbitration over frontiers; it seemed however not to have satisfied Nicaragua. Agencies cited the diplomat Carlos Argüello as saying that the November ruling - which ceded to Nicaragua 70,000 square kilometres of sea territory to delineate the states' disputed frontier - had not denied Nicaragua the right to push out its frontier to 200 miles or further on the offshore continental platform. The daily El Espectador interpreted his comments on 12 May as implying that Nicaragua believed it should hold the entire continental platform, which Argüello said was merely to be measured to establish the correct frontier line. Argüello said President Daniel Ortega would decide in following days whether or not Nicaragua would pursue its claim and when, the daily El Colombiano reported on 13 May. It was not immediately clear if Argüello was speaking in the Netherlands or Nicaragua. He stressed this was not a new claim but a logical interpretation of international laws and the 19 November ruling, Spain's EFE agency and ABC reported. Colombia had yet to formally accept or implement the court's instructions any case. A Colombian legislator said on 12 May that the only thing President Ortega should earn was that Colombia formalise its refusal to implement the ruling. Senator Alexandra Morena Piraquive of the small MIRA party and a member of a parliamentary committee that advises the President on foreign affairs, said Nicaragua was "daring" and "disrespectful" of international law, for not giving Colombia time to have the 19 November ruling reviewed. She said Colombia should "take a political posture" and "confirm" it would ignore the ruling, Caracol radio reported.