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Seychelles and Tanzania discuss seabed management sharing |20 January 2014

Good start to first round of talks


Good progress has been made during the first in a series of talks on the possibility for Seychelles and Tanzania to jointly manage an area of the seabed outside their exclusive economic zones.

The two days of talks on the possibility for the two countries to make a joint submission to the United Nations to jointly manage an area of the extended continental shelf in the Aldabra region was hosted by the government of Seychelles and took place on Thursday and Friday last week at the Ministry of Land Use and Housing.

Seychelles’ delegation taking part in the discussion was led by Raymond Chang-Tave, the chairperson of the Maritime Boundary Delimitation Committee, while the Tanzanian delegation was led by Zabron Masele, the advisor on boundary matters in the Tanzanian Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development.

Speaking at the end of the first meeting on Friday afternoon Mr Chang Tave and Mr Masele hailed the progress made.

Mr Chang Tave said the two parties discussed and agreed on a proposed geographical area which is the Aldabra Island region and would be the subject of the joint submission.

He noted that in addition to that all the different conditions related to such a submission were also proposed.
 
“Now both parties will hold further talks to consider all  the above with their respective governments before the two negotiating delegations meet again in March, this time in Tanzania, where it is expected discussions on the procedures to build up the submission itself will start,” Mr Chang Tave said.

He said he is satisfied that during this first meeting the parties have covered all issues that were on their agenda and will now await approval from their respective governments to continue the negotiations.

Although such negotiations are complex and lengthy, Mr Chang Tave is nevertheless very optimistic that with the experience Seychelles gained during the first joint submission negotiated with Mauritius for the Mascareignes plateau region, there is now a model to follow that could help reduce the length of time the discussion with Tanzania would take.

For his part Mr Masele also expressed satisfaction after this first meeting between the two parties.

“The meeting has gone very well but the process has not yet started as we have to take all proposals to our governments for further consideration and endorsement,” he pointed out.

Mr Chang Tave noted that once the exercise is completed, both countries stand to benefit from such a submission as they would be able to jointly manage and exploit any natural resources which could possibly be found in the area in question.

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