India applied to the International Seabed Authority (ISBA), Jamaica, for rights to explore two vast tracts in the Indian Ocean seabed that aren’t part of its jurisdiction.
The application to explore one of these regions, a cobalt-rich crust long known as the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount (AN Seamount), is a gambit by India.
Rights to the region have already been claimed by Sri Lanka under a separate set of laws.
But India’s application is part-motivated by reports of vessels by China undertaking reconnaissance in the same region.
The AN Seamount is a structural feature (400 km-long and 150 km-wide) in the Central Indian Basin.
It is located about 3,000 km away from India’s coast.
From an oceanic depth of about 4,800 km, it rises to about 1,200 metre rich in deposits of cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper.
Countries have exclusive rights up to 200 nautical miles, and its underlying sea-bed from their borders.
Some ocean-bound states may have a natural stretch of land, connecting their border and the edge of the deep ocean that extends beyond this 200, as part of their so-called continental shelf.