Chapter 801 Territorial Seas and Major Events

On January 3, 2009, Major General Li Mo, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Somali Defence Force, attended the first meeting of the Somali National Assembly this year.

The National Assembly of Somalia is the highest organ of power in Somalia. It is responsible for reviewing the political axe and major military decisions. Although in the actual process, some of the power has not been effectively reflected, the national parliament, as an effective link to win over the people from all walks of life in the country, is still extremely affected by the political axe and the military. Pay attention to it.

In addition to his military position, Li Mo himself is also an honorary member of the national parliament. In this meeting, he submitted the military budget of this year's National Defense Force (face-to-face political allocation) and an important report on this year's national defense construction.

In this report, Li Mo put forward a proposal to modify the distance of Somalia's territorial waters, which aroused a great response at the national conference.

At the beginning of its establishment, the Republic of Somalia determined the territorial sea area of Somalia, which is the territorial sea of Somalia within a distance of 30 nautical miles from the coastal baseline (low tide line).

In 1982, the Law of the United Nations Convention on the Seas was adopted. According to the provisions of the Convention Law, countries have the right to independently formulate the territorial sea area, but the territorial sea area, that is, the distance extending from the coastal baseline at low tide should not exceed 22 kilometers.

In today's world, the territorial sea distances set by countries are different. The shortest distance is three nautical miles. For example, 24 countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands have the largest number of countries in the territorial sea within the range of 12 nautical miles. There are 77 countries such as China, the Soviet Union, France and India, while most African coastal countries use The standard of 12 nautical miles to 100 nautical miles.

The largest territorial sea distance in the world is the South American country. For the sake of marine commercial interests, most countries in South America have positioned the territorial sea distance at 200 nautical miles.

The territorial sea is the territory of a country, and all countries have all the sovereignty over the territorial sea. It includes the territorial sea of the mainland and the territorial sea of the islands, which are part of a country's territory.

In the 1970s, Somalia defined the scope of territorial sea for 30 nautical miles. This number is basically medium in the world. After all, it is understandable for countries like Somalia to set a wider distance from the territorial sea, because Somalia is very poor and needs not political prestige, but the economic interests of its own political axe and fishermen.

However, the data of dividing the territorial sea is not suitable today. Especially under the condition that Somalia does not have a strong navy, the larger the territorial sea area is divided, the greater the constraint it will be. The problem of Somali pirates has always been a headache that Somali political axes have to face. On the side of the Gulf of Aden, the Somali territorial sea is actually no different from the high seas.

Li Mo proposed to modify the scope of the territorial sea this time, which is not a momentary preference, but for a conclusive reason.

In December last year, a country proposed at the United Nations General Assembly that the Gulf of Aden convoy fleet should have the right to enter Somalia's territorial waters for free operations to combat piracy. The real intention of the country that proposed this bill is self-evident, but it is not really to fight against pirates. This is the so-called Xiangzhuang sword dance intention of Pei Gong. Their real intention is to give warships and aircraft the right to have a legitimate reason to approach the Somali coast.

This bill was not passed in the end. The main reason is not that the country that introduced the bill is not strong, but that the current situation in Somalia is completely different from that of Li Mo's last life.

Today's Somalia is a complete political axe, with a relatively sound system of justice, military security and economy, rather than Somalia, which had a large number of warlords in the country in its last life. A sovereign country, a country that has the ability to solve problems, does not allow 'interference' in its internal affairs. Admittedly, some countries like to interfere in the internal affairs of others, but Somalia is not soft. At the United Nations General Assembly, there are dozens of countries in Africa alone. In general, these Africans It is difficult for countries to be consistent with the outside world, but in this matter, no country will 'rebelle', and in the Security Council, there is still China.

The United Nations General Assembly did not pass this bill to authorize all members to use 'all the necessary means' to fight the piracy in the region, which does not mean that the Somali countries will be obedient.

As far as Li Mo knows, in December last year, some member states of the European Union proposed to organize a military operation against Somali pirates, which was the famous 'Operation Atalanta' in Li Mo's last life.

The action was proposed by France and endorsed by Germany and Greece, but for some reasons, the proposal was not approved for the time being.

However, Li Mo also knows that France does not seem to be reconciled and is still contacting EU member states to try to adopt this resolution.

This reason is also one of the reasons why Li Mo was forced to modify the distance between Somalia's territorial waters. He still doesn't want to directly compete with these Western powers. There is no chance of winning. The best result is that both sides are injured. The biggest reason is that several years of efforts have been in vain.

In the report submitted by Li Mo in the National Assembly, Li Mo proposed to position the territorial sea distance on the Gulf of Aden in northern Somalia at 12 nautical miles, while the distance of the territorial sea in the eastern western Indian Ocean would not be changed.

Although this is a sign of weakness, Li Mo feels that it is not without benefits. After all, in this way, at least the area of the northern territorial sea will be reduced to the scope of the United Nations Oceanic Convention Law, and internationally, it will always be supported by some neutral countries.

Moreover, there are too many interests in the Gulf of Aden. This golden waterway is already very eye-catching. Coupled with the warships of various countries here, in fact, Somalia has basically lost part of its sovereignty over the '30-mile territorial sea'. It is better to take a step back and reduce the area of the territorial sea and reduce the pressure on defense.

In addition to proposing amendments to the territorial sea area, Li Mo also put forward a Somali maritime law and regulation: any aircraft and military ships passing in Somalia's territorial waters must be allowed by the Somali political axe.

In the law of international maritime conventions, there is a 'right of harmless passage'. The so-called 'right of harmless passage' refers to foreign ships passing through the territorial waters of sovereign states, as long as they do not harm the peace, good order and safety of coastal countries.

In the convention law, it is not stipulated that military vessels and aircraft are not allowed to pass through the territorial waters of coastal States. Therefore, in international law, his [***] ships and aircraft have the 'power' to pass in the territorial waters of his country. Many countries have imposed some restrictions on this issue, such as restricting the tonnage and size of passing warships, or requiring prior notice or prior permission.

That year, when Huaxia bought a 'waste aircraft carrier' from Russia to pass through the Turkish Strait, it was rejected by the Turkish military and security departments. The reason is that the scrapped aircraft carrier may pose a threat to Turkey's national security. Of course, everyone knows the actual reason, but Turkey has this power.

The purpose of Li Mo's proposal this time is to formally determine the power of its own territorial waters in a legal way. In this way, some countries that do bad things under the guise of fighting pirates must reconsider.

The second proposal put forward by Li Mo was easily passed, but the first one, the proposal to modify the territorial sea area, was still opposed by many legislators. After all, Li Mo's action was tantamount to 'losing the land'. If it hadn't been for Li Mo's reputation and power in Somalia had reached its peak, I'm afraid someone would have immediately Jump out and accuse Li Mo of having ulterior motives.

Fortunately, this matter was supported by President Yusuf before. Li Mo met with representatives of several important parties and local forces in private, and also obtained the understanding and support of the other party. The bill was finally passed.

The next day, the Somali political axe announced the news to the outside world, which immediately aroused a great response in the world. Many people think that Somalia's political axe is completely 'stupid', especially in the eyes of South American countries, Somalia is so stupid that it doesn't even have maritime commercial interests. Others expand their territory as much as possible, but Somalia takes the initiative to reduce its territory, which can be described as a 'fool'.

However, many countries have seen the real intention of this move. With Somalia's military strength, the defense of 3,200 kilometers of coastline is not enough, and the active reduction of the territorial sea area to a suitable range is in line with Somalia's development and national defense needs.

However, on the same day, the Somali military also announced another news to the outside world, that is, restrictions have been imposed on the outer [***] ships and aircraft passing through the Somali territorial waters. All 'harmless' outer [***] ships and aircraft passing through the Somali territorial waters must obtain the permission of the Somali political axe, otherwise it will be regarded as Military invasion of Somalia.

On this day, many influential events happened in the world.

On the same day, Sri Lanka's political axe announced that the political axe army had invaded the headquarters of the Sri Lankan 'terrorist organization' and killed the leader of the organization on the same day. The radical resistance group sought by the Tamils disappeared, and the 19-year-old Sri Lankan civil war ended.

A large number of ground troops of the Israel Defense Force went to the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army launched a ground attack on Gaza, and the conflict in Gaza escalated.

The Gaza Strip is a narrow strip located in the west coast of Israel and the northeast of the Sinai Peninsula, mainly settled by Palestinians. It was occupied by Egypt in the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 and recaptured by Israel in the Six-Japanese War in 1967.

This area is densely populated, but it does not belong to any country. Naturally, it is the focus of conflict and war.

The Gaza Strip has always been the center of Israel's struggle with the Palestinian people. After the establishment of the Islamic Palestinian Resistance Movement (Hamas), several fierce conflicts broke out in this region almost every year. Militaryly, Israel is too strong, but Hamas has the support of local people and the secret assistance of foreign forces. The two sides are in constant conflict in this area.

After the war on the 6th, Israel divided the Gaza Strip into two regions. Israel itself controlled 33% of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas controlled 67% of the other land. The two sides also reached a ceasefire agreement in 2007, and Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and handed over the area to Hamas.

After the end of the semi-annual ceasefire agreement, Israel hoped to continue to sign the ceasefire agreement, but Hamas refused Israel's request and on the day the ceasefire agreement expired, just like Israel launched a rocket attack. For a period of time, Hamas's attack did not stop and finally caused Israel's anger, supported by more than 80% of the Israeli people, entered the Gaza Strip again.

(to be continued)