Sri Lanka to push for expansion of sea boundary

Colombo, June 3 (IANS) Sri Lanka will push for expansion of its sea boundary, also known as the continental shelf, and send a delegation to the UN to discuss the issue, according to government's information department.

The government said the expansion of the sea boundary would help it secure oil, gas, mineral sands and other resources from the ocean around the island, Xinhua reported.

"We must make every effort to secure this for our next generation," Chairman of the National Ocean Affairs Committee Chris Dharmakirti was quoted in the government statement as saying.

Sri Lanka will send a team of legal, scientific and international affairs experts to attend the 22nd Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea at the UN in New York, to garner international support to expedite the hearings at the Continental Shelf Margin Claim.

"It is extremely unreasonable and totally unacceptable that a coastal nation with substantial entitlement to the valuable ocean bed resources must wait for decades to have their boundaries of their continental shelf demarcated officially by the United Nations," Dharmakirti said.

Sri Lanka would have to wait until 2028 to have its claim for the extension of the continental shelf heard, but it will push for a hearing by 2018 or 2020, the government said.