A diver.

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SUPERSTOCK / SUPERSTOCK / SIPA

The French submarine maritime domain has officially been extended by some 150,000 km2 in the Indian Ocean.

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, a specialized body of the United Nations, announced in June 2020 that it was authorizing France to extend its continental shelf.

The publication, in the month of January in the Official Journal, of two decrees fixing the outer limits of the continental shelf "brings into French law the extension of the continental shelf off the islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, and Réunion", said the General Secretariat of the Sea on Wednesday.

Rights to the soil and the seabed

The French maritime domain will thus extend off Reunion Island, by 58,121 km2, and off the islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, in the TAAF, (French Southern and Antarctic Territories) of 93,202 km2, i.e. in total l 'equivalent of more than a quarter of the surface of the Hexagon.

However, France's rights over these zones are exercised only on the soil and the seabed and not on the water column, which remains in the international domain.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), known as Montego Bay, gives coastal countries in these areas sovereign rights for the exploration and exploitation of natural resources of the soil and subsoil (hydrocarbons , minerals, metals or biological resources).

"The exploitation of these underwater spaces is not on the agenda", however assured in June the Secretary General of the Sea in a press release.

But this allows France "to preserve its rights for the future in vast underwater spaces, which implies the possibility of ensuring their protection if exploitation is not desired".

The continental shelf may still expand

In total, the continental shelf of France is brought to an area of ​​730,000 km2, which is added to the 10.2 million km2 of water under sovereignty (internal waters and territorial sea) or under jurisdiction (exclusive economic zone, EEZ ) French.

France can still claim about 500,000 km2 of continental shelf, especially around the archipelago of Crozet, Wallis and Futuna, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, south-eastern New Caledonia and French Polynesia .

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