Santos overflies sea territory in dispute with Nicaragua

English>>World

Editor's Pick

Santos overflies sea territory in dispute with Nicaragua

(Xinhua) 13:06, September 20, 2013

Email|Print|Comments

twitter

facebook

Sina Microblog

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos overflew the sea territory in dispute with Nicaragua on Thursday after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) transferred the control of some 75,000 square kilometers of Caribbean Sea from Colombia to Nicaragua.

Santos also patrolled a Navy ship in the disputed area, and said that Nicaragua's demand with the ICJ is "unfair, unfriendly and reckless." Santos also remarked that the ICJ ruling is "inapplicable" according to Colombia's constitution.

"This morning I also got on what we call a maritime patrol, a Navy's aircraft, and went to check the locations of our three frigates: Caldas frigate, Almirante Padilla frigate and 20 de Julio frigate," Santos said.

"Those were the instructions that I gave to the three commanders of the three frigates: continue to comply with the duty to defend our boundaries, our borders and our sovereignty," Colombia's president said in San Andres Island.

Santos also "rejected" the new demand of Nicaragua with the ICJ, saying that it was "unfounded" and "reckless".

Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that the country is prepared to deal with Nicaragua on their dispute.

Last week, the Constitutional Court of Colombia announced that it will consider a lawsuit filed by Santos against the American Treaty on Pacific Settlement, which confers jurisdiction over such disputes to the ICJ.

（Editor：WangXin、Yao Chun）