"Maritime boundary settlement is a prerequisite for resource cooperation." Examine with reference to the India–Sri Lanka agreements of 1974 and 1976.

Countries can share resources at sea only once it is clear who owns what. India and Sri Lanka settled their boundary in two steps. The 1974 agreement covered the historic waters of Palk Strait [1]. The 23 March 1976 agreement covered the Gulf of Mannar and Bay of Bengal [2]. What happened next shows that settlement is necessary but not sufficient for cooperation.

How settlement made cooperation possible

• Clear title to resources: Article 4 (1974) and Article 5(2) (1976) give each side sovereign rights over the continental shelf, EEZ and their living and non-living resources on its side of the line [1][2]. This made exploration licences legally secure.
• Rules for shared fields: Article 7 (1974) and Article 6 (1976) commit both states to seek agreement on how to exploit oil or gas fields that cross the line and how to share the proceeds [1][2].
• Room for trade-offs: An exchange of letters with the 1976 pact placed the Wadge Bank near Cape Comorin inside India's EEZ [3]. This balanced Katchatheevu going to Sri Lanka in 1974.
• Quick practical gains: By October 1976, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had offered ONGC a supply base at Trincomalee for its offshore work in the Cauvery basin. The offer included exchange of geological data across the boundary [4].

Why settlement is not enough

• An "agreement to agree": The shared-field clauses set no sharing formula, deadline or way to settle disputes [1][2].
• An offer, not a deal: ONGC only planned to send a team to examine the offer [4]. No source shows the base was ever used.
• Uneven gains: Sri Lanka's partners had already drilled wells, while India's contractor had only finished seismic surveys [4]. Sharing data therefore helped the two sides unequally.
• Fishing friction remains: Article 5 (1974) only let Indian fishermen and pilgrims visit Katchatheevu [1]. Fishing disputes in Palk Bay still recur.

Way forward

• The prize here is mostly gas. A recent USGS assessment puts undiscovered recoverable gas at about 53.4 trillion cubic feet across ten Indian and Sri Lankan basins, including the Cauvery and Mannar basins [5]. Gas needs shared pipelines and buyers, so both sides should agree sharing rules before any field is found.
• Revive joint data-sharing and shared supply bases, and set up a standing fisheries mechanism.

The 1974–76 pacts turned a contested sea into a space for cooperation, but they left the hard bargaining unfinished. Clear rules for shared fields and fisheries would complete the job, in line with the spirit of UNCLOS and SDG 14. Settling the boundary was the essential first step.