UN accepts Mexico's continental shelf limits in the Gulf
A U.N. commission approved Mexico's proposal for the Eastern Polygon. The Foreign Ministry says the limits are final and binding.
The U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has accepted the outer limits Mexico proposed for its extended continental shelf in the Eastern Polygon of the Gulf of Mexico. The Foreign Ministry announced the decision Tuesday in a statement.
Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, the ministry says, the limits are now final and binding and give Mexico "full legal certainty." It says Mexico holds exclusive sovereign rights to explore for and exploit the resources of the seabed and subsoil in the area.
An extended continental shelf is the seabed and subsoil beyond 200 nautical miles from shore. A coastal country can claim it if it shows the area is a natural extension of its underwater territory.
In the Gulf, Mexico shares maritime borders with the United States and Cuba. The ministry says the new limits respect the boundaries Mexico negotiated earlier with both countries in the same area.
Mexico's technical team included the ministry's legal office, the national statistics institute INEGI, the Navy, the Mexican Geological Survey and the state oil company Pemex. The statement gives no size for the area and does not say whether resources have been identified there.
To give the limits international publicity, the ministry will hand the U.N. Secretariat the charts and geodetic data that describe them.
