‘India, U.S. not on same page on rules-based order'

India on April 9 had protested a U.S. decision to conduct a patrol in India's exclusive economic zone near Lakshadweep

On April 9, in India's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Lakshadweep. India reiterated its position, conveyed when it ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), that military manoeuvres within its EEZ require consent. The U.S said it had conducted the “freedom of navigation operation” (FONOP) to challenge India’s “excessive” maritime claims. The latest FONOP underlines both countries have "huge differences" when it comes to what a “rules-based order” means for the region, says Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation. Excerpts from an interview: UNCLOS is fairly straightforward on this. You have a 12 nautical mile territorial sea, an additional 24 nautical miles as a contiguous zone where you can have some law and order, policing etc, and a 200 nautical mile EEZ which you are free to exploit, with fisheries or sea-bed mining but where you do not have territorial rights. Military ships can go through even territorial waters on what is called innocent passage. But India insists on notification not only for its territorial waters but even its EEZ. In Lakshadweep, there is another complicated issue called Straight Baselines, which allows countries to claim a larger area of water around an island group. The U.S. has challenged that as well. UNCLOS does not permit continental states like India to claim straight baselines, but only archipelago states like Indonesia or the Philippines. So there is a dual challenge here, including to the Straight Baselines, which makes this latest FONOP different.