A sea rich in hydrocarbon resources, an undefined maritime boundary, two poverty stricken nations searching for an elixir... nothing better describes the standoff between Burma(Myanmar) and Bangladesh today. The bone of contention - unexplored oil reserves in the Bay of Bengal.
Burma started oil exploration in the Bay of Bengal with its ships escorted by Naval craft. Bangladesh opposed this move as it insisted that the area lies well within it's territorial waters and demanded that Burma withdraw its ships until a clear maritime boundary be decided through negotiations. Dhaka also dispatched a naval fleet to that area after lodging a diplomatic protest. Burma has refused to retreat and says it will continue the exploration as the area under exploration is Burmese territory and also officially lodged a complaint with Bangladesh for sending naval ships into Burmese territorial waters. Hence there is a standoff between the naval ships of the two countries in the Bay of Bengal.
Cuurently talks are being held to find an amiable solution to this problem. The two countries are also scheduled to hold talks in Dhaka in mid November on demarcating a maritime boundary. Both countries have been holding talks on the issue in recent years.
With oil being such an important commodity in the world today, will it be easy to come to companiable conclusions in these talks ? I wonder if there has been a similar dipute in an other part of the world and how it has been or will be resolved.
