US Navy ship USS John Paul Jones in Indian Territorial Waters
A US guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones sailed through India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, without intimating India on 07 April 2021 — in violation of the Indian law. The US move is a violation of India’s laws. The US Navy has publicly declared it conducted “Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP)” in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) near Lakshadweep earlier this week, without deliberately seeking New Delhi’s prior consent. B ut it is considered more of a ‘messaging to China’, in view of its belligerent moves in South China Sea. Background India’s domestic laws hold any country carrying out military manoeuvres in its EEZ must provide prior notification. While a country has full sovereignty over its territorial waters, which end at 12 nautical miles from the coast, it only has special rights in exploration and use of marine resources in its EEZ, which stretch to 200 nautical miles from the base...