Hydrographic Pact Withdrawl by Maldives

• Context (TH): Recently, Maldives decided to revoke the joint hydrographic survey agreement with India.
• Earlier, Male skipped the annual Columbo Security Conclave meeting.

Hydrographic Survey Pact 2019

• It was signed between the Indian Navy and Maldives National Defence Force in 2019.
• The pact allowed India to study the island nation’s territorial waters, ocean relief and tide levels.

Possible Reasons behind the Withdrawal of the Pact

• Dual nature of hydrography: Non-miliary data can be helpful in military applications.
• Maldives is apprehensive that survey data can be part of intelligence collection.
• Current China-biased Maldivian govt. It seems to aid China’s marine surveys.

Significance of Hydrographic Survey for India

• It helps advance non-military objectives, such as ensuring maritime safety, scientific research, and environmental monitoring.
• It can also facilitate military aims such as surveillance of a nation’s vital coastal installations and war-fighting assets.
• Chinese intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance ships are regularly deployed in the Indian Ocean, making it imperative for India too.
• Mapping the ocean’s temperature profile and studying other oceanic phenomena is meant to improve sonar performance and detection of enemy submarines.
• The Chinese plan to develop a naval base and an ocean observatory in Makunudhoo Atoll, north of Male — not far from India’s Lakshadweep Islands necessitates precautionary measures.

International Law on Hydrographic Survey

• The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) does not explicitly authorise a coastal state to regulate hydrographic surveys or military surveys conducted beyond its territorial sea.
• A littoral state may only regulate marine scientific research in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).