The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Peace Palace in The Hague has delivered a historic and binding judgment resolving a decades-long maritime delimitation dispute over sovereign rights to continental shelf resources.

The 15-judge bench unanimously established an equidistant boundary line between the adjacent states, clarifying the complex legal relationship between natural prolongation of the seabed and distance-based continental shelf entitlements under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Significantly, the Court ruled that minor isolated rocks incapable of sustaining human habitation cannot generate extended continental shelf claims, establishing an important precedent for global maritime delimitation.

"International law provides the only durable foundation for resolving overlapping maritime entitlements and securing oceanic peace."
— President of the International Court of Justice Judgment Reading

Joint Environmental and Fisheries Management

Following the reading of the judgment, diplomatic delegations from both nations signed a joint memorandum pledging to establish a cooperative fishery conservation zone and joint development framework for subsea energy transit along the newly demarcated boundary.