These proceedings were initiated by Bangladesh on 8 October 2009 with a Notification and Statement of Claim under Article 287 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS” or “the 1982 Convention”). In accordance with Article 9(1) of the Rules of Procedure for the Arbitral Tribunal Constituted under Annex VII, Bangladesh submitted its Memorial comprising five volumes on 31 May 2011. India submitted its Counter-Memorial comprising two volumes 14 months later, on 31 July 2012, pursuant to a two-month time extension granted by the Tribunal in a letter to the Parties dated 9 January 2012. As a consequence of this time extension, the Tribunal has modified the timetable set out in Article 9 of the Rules of Procedure. Bangladesh submits this Reply comprising three volumes in accordance with the updated schedule set out in a letter to the Parties dated 14 September 2012. 

This Reply supplements the arguments of law and fact presented by Bangladesh in 1.2 the Memorial and fully responds to the arguments of India set out in the Counter-Memorial. Since Bangladesh filed its Memorial, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (“ITLOS”) has given its Judgment in the Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh/Myanmar) on 14 March 2012. Like India, which sought a delay in the filing of its Counter-Memorial in order to take account of that Judgment, and has made significant references to it, Bangladesh has benefited from the opportunity the Judgment has afforded to clarify some of the arguments set out in the Memorial. None of the arguments advanced by India, however, have caused Bangladesh to change its approach to this case. The initial round of written submissions has revealed that the Parties remain deeply divided on the delimitation of the territorial sea, exclusive economic zone (“EEZ”) and continental shelf within 200 nautical miles (“M”) and on the delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 M. 

With respect to the location of the land boundary terminus, the Bangladesh Me1.3 morial showed that the Radcliffe Award had determined the land boundary between Bangladesh and India and provided a fixed location for the land boundary terminus, at the point where the main channel of the Hariabhanga River met the Bay of Bengal in 1947. By reference to the 1931 edition of British Admiralty Chart 859, Bangladesh demonstrated that the land boundary terminus is located at 21°38’14”N and 89°06’39”E (WGS84).