pUnderstanding the maritime boundary problem
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pThe incursions by Australian units into Indonesian territorial waters during Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB) have justifiably been the subject of much public comment over the past month.
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pCanada Goose sale Errors were made that should not buy canada goose jacket cheap have been made. Canada Goose sale
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pCanada Goose Jackets Although canada goose uk shop the details of the operations and the ship movements involved have not been released, the executive summary canadian goose jacket of the Joint Review conducted a href=”https://www.winterdownparkas.com” rel=”friend”canada goose outlet/a by Customs and Defence provides further background. Canada Goose Jackets
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pcheap Canada Goose The review confirms the fact that “when planning staff realised that the details of some post patrol reporting did not correlate with the generic planning for the OSB patrols on which the operational Canada Goose Coats On Sale instructions were predicated”, the Government moved very cheap canada goose uk quickly to admit the mistake and apologise to Indonesia. cheap Canada Goose
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pcanada goose clearance sale The problem was discovered on January 15 canada goose clearance and within two days public announcements and public apologies had been made. canada goose clearance sale
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pcanada goose deals So what happened? canada goose deals
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pCanada Goose online The full circumstances are not clear, but what is apparent is that units simply misinterpreted the maritime boundaries around Indonesia. Canada Goose a href=”https://www.winterdownparkas.com” rel=”friend met co-worker neighbor”https://www.winterdownparkas.com/a online
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pbuy canada goose jacket Under international law, the territorial sea of a state is generally considered to extend 12 nautical miles (just over 22 kilometres) from land. buy canada goose jacket
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pcanada goose clearance Indonesia, uk canada goose however, is an archipelago as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). canada goose clearance
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pThis is a “group of islands, including parts of islands, interconnecting waters and other natural features which are so closely interrelated that such islands, waters and other natural features canada goose black friday sale form an intrinsic geographical, economic and political entity, or which historically have been regarded as such”.
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pcanada goose black friday sale Errors were made that should not have been made. canada goose black friday sale
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pRetired Rear Admiral James Goldrick
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pcanada goose coats on sale Because Indonesia is an archipelago, within certain limits it has the Canada Goose Outlet right to draw baselines between its outermost islands and pieces of dry land from which the territorial sea extends a further 12 nautical miles. canada goose coats on sale
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pcanada goose coats Drawing what is effectively cheap Canada Goose a ring around all the islands also results in everything inside the archipelago being territorial waters, “regardless of. distance from Canada Goose sale the coast”. canada goose coats
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pcanadian goose jacket There are special provisions for foreign vessels which need to pass through an archipelago en route to Canada Goose Parka somewhere else, but these do not apply to the operations which the Australian ships were conducting. canadian goose jacket
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pCanada Goose Parka At the edge of the boundaries, canada goose a ship can be up to 50 canada goose factory sale nautical miles (in special circumstances over 60 nautical miles) from the nearest land and still be within the territorial sea. Canada Goose Parka
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pIt is clear from the public statements that at no time did any Australian ship approach within 12 nautical miles of Indonesian land.
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pcanada goose For whatever reason, this 12 mile limit interpretation of international canada goose clearance sale law seems to have been the one that dominated incorrectly the planning and execution of the operation at sea. canada goose
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pIt is canada goose uk outlet possible that the desire to minimise the distance that Canada Goose Jackets any craft had to go to reach canada goose coats a safe point on land caused Canada Goose Online both the ships and their immediate headquarters to lose focus on the need to construct a geometry that met that requirement and still respected Indonesian waters something best achieved by approaching a suitable landmass at the outer boundary of the archipelago Canada Goose online at right angles to canada goose coats on sale the coast and any baseline.
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pCanada Goose Outlet It is vital that ships use the full mix of electronic, mechanical and human assets notably the eye to ensure that they know where they are in relation to land and to underwater dangers at all times. Canada Goose Outlet
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pcanada goose store The ships involved in Operation Sovereign Borders would have been navigating from the land closest to them, taking visual bearings by compass and measuring their range from the coast by radar, as well as utilising depth soundings together much more accurate in the circumstances than satellite data which might be working to a different datum point than that of the local chart and thus have an inherent error, however small. canada goose store
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pIn this case, the ships seem at all times to have been well aware of their location, probably within about 100 metres, but did not include the critical legal element of the baselines in their calculations.
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pCustoms and Border Protection Service acknowledged that neither their operational team leaders, nor the masters of canada goose uk black friday the chartered vessels involved had canada goose store received training on the archipelagic aspects of international maritime law, having previously focused on Australia’s boundaries and the rules by which they are set.
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pThere are obvious uk canada goose outlet issues of training here for the service, whose maritime capabilities have been steadily buy canada goose jacket expanding over the past 20 years.
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pThe vessels now operated by Customs and Border Protection or which work under charter to the service are seagoing in a way that the first Customs patrol boats were not.
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pFor the Navy, the question seems not to be one of training or education but of operational judgment; that is, how each responsible officer performed and what was the quality of their decision making in the situation that they faced, given the information available to them and the conditions under which they were working.
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