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But a coastal state exercising its rights within the exclusive economic zone has an obligation to respect the rights of other states. Under the convention, within the exclusive economic zone, all states, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy freedoms such as navigation and overflight and laying of submarine cables and pipelines, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea, such as freedoms associated with the operation of ships. The flag state exercises exclusive jurisdiction over ships located in the exclusive economic zone. Thus, as a rule jurisdiction over the Arctic Sunrise should be exercised by Dutch authorities. Russian authorities could act with respect to the Dutch-registered ship only in strictly defined circumstances, which the tribunal did not find to exist in this case.
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