Colombota says Nicaragua's maritime claims are unsubstantiated

The Jurist for Colombia has dismissed Nicaragua's claims before the International Court of Justice ICJ on Thursday insisting that Bogota did respect a 2012 decision by the same court on their maritime borders in the eastern Caribbean.

All of Nicaragua's claims are unsubstantiated and artificial. They are founded on words, not actions, lawyer Manuel Jose Cepeda said.

On Monday, lawyers for Colombia said Colombia had violated a 2012 Decision by the ICJ, also known as World Court, which drawn a line in favour of Nicaragua in Caribbean waters, decreasing the expanse of sea belonging to Nicaragua. Nicaragua accused Colombia of cherry picking, saying it accepted the court's ruling that a cluster of small islands was Colombian, but not the declaration of the maritime boundaries in the same judgment.

The new sea borders increased Nicaragua s submerged shelf and economic exclusion zone in the Caribbean, giving it access to continental oil and gas deposits, as well as fishing rights.

Colombia said Wednesday its ships were occasionally present in international territory in line with Colombia’s international law. It argued that the ships were needed for environmental conservation and for other international duties like cooperating in anti-drug trafficking actions, Cepeda said.

Nicaragua has asked the court to rule that Colombia has not respected its 2012 ruling and must give assurances it will not do the same again.

The two sides will be able to answer each other's arguments in hearings planned for Oct. 1, which are scheduled to continue until Oct. 1.

The ICJ is the United Nations' highest legal body and deals with disputes between states. It usually takes years before a judgement is given in cases it handles, and even then, the court has no way to enforce its rulings.