The 10th Joint Joint Session of the Benin-Togolese Commission for the Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary opened on Thursday, October 28 in Lomé. The participants in this meeting will develop a global agenda for the actual negotiations and explore the ways and means to achieve this and determine the geographical and legal limits.

Organized by the High Council for the Sea (HCM), the Joint Joint Session of the Benin-Togolese Commission for the Delimitation of the Maritime Border brings together delegations from the Maritime Border Management Agency of Benin and Togo, the heads of the ECOWAS component and the GIZ project and the maritime prefects of the two countries. For two days, they will have to draw up a global agenda for these negotiations. The objective of the representatives of the two countries together is in particular to be able to extend their continental shelf beyond 200,000 nautical miles, following a request for extension filed jointly in 2018 with the UN. The work will lead to a document that should coordinate the management of these maritime borders, taking into account interests, equity, the size of the country and transparency.