China pledges 500,000 FJD for surveying the Fijian continental shelf (Linked to ETCA #63479)

On August 14, 2006, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Matei Tonga, sent a letter to the Chinese Embassy in Fiji proposing to use the aid from a 2006 Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA #63479) to survey the Fijian continental shelf. According to Article 76 of the United Nations Law of the Sea, Fiji should have completed its continental shelf survey by May 2009. Completing the survey required 500,000 Fijian Dollars (FJD). Fiji had not built the cost of the survey into their fiscal budget and is thus trying to use the ETCA's aid fund. It is unclear if the Government of Fiji's proposal got approved. According to the release from the United Nations, on April 20, 2009, a partial submission was made by Fiji about the information on the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. A complete submission is made on April 30, 2012.

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