Foreign Ministry says although the Maldives decided to support Mauritius in its dispute with the United Kingdom over the ownership of the Chagos islands at the United Nations General Assembly, it would not forfeit on its dispute with Mauritius at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and this has been made clear to the island nation.
Mauritius and the Maldives have been fighting over a 37,000-square-mile expanse of the Indian Ocean before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, with both claiming the fish-rich waters as their own economic zones.
In a heavily worded statement, the Foreign Ministry said that since gaining independence back in 1965 and receiving UN membership in September of that year, the Maldives has been a strong voice in opposing colonialism and that remains one of its unchanged stances over the years.
The statement stated that after the Maldives received its UN membership, several states under colonial powers gained their own independence and entered the UN and that the Maldives has always supported these nations.
The Ministry said that the debate about the Chagos islands belonging to Mauritius is years old and that after these debates in a 2019 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice, the U.N.'s highest court, ruled that the continuing British occupation of the islands was illegal and the Chagos Islands are rightfully part of Mauritius.
It further said that upon this advisory, Mauritius, along with some African nations and nations from the non-aligned movement joined to gather to submit a resolution to the UN General Assembly calling for the transfer of Chagos to Mauritius and that the resolution was submitted on 22nd May of that year.
But Mauritius has opposed the Maldives' application to the Commission on the Limits of the International Shelf back in 2010 asking to increase its continental shelf by 200 nautical miles and that the Maldives had initially voted against its fellow island nation at the UN General Assembly.
The Foreign Ministry further said that the Maldives changed its stance on the matter because of its policy on Colonization and decided to vote with Mauritius.
It further clarified that the dispute with Mauritius at the International Tribunal and its dispute with the UK at the UN were different. It added that the Maldives would take its opportunity to explain its vote during any UN general vote on the Chagos matter to clarify that its stance in the dispute between the UK and Mauritius would not change anything in its dispute with Mauritius over the border matter.
The Ministry said that this has been since clarified to the Mauritian government.
