An archipelagic state is an island country that consists of an archipelago. The designation is legally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In various conferences, [1] the Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines are the five original sovereign states that obtained approval in the UNCLOS signed in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 10 December 1982 and qualified as the archipelagic states. [2]
Archipelagic states are composed of groups of islands forming a state as a single unit, with the islands and the waters within the baselines as internal waters. Under this concept ("archipelagic doctrine"), an archipelago shall be regarded as a single unit, so that the waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the state, and are subject to its exclusive sovereignty. The baselines must enclose the main islands of the archipelago and the enclosed water to land ratio must be "between 1:1 and 9:1". [3]
The approval of the United Nations (UN) for the five sovereign states as archipelagic states respect [4] existing agreements with other countries and shall recognize traditional fishing rights and other legitimate activities of the immediately adjacent neighboring countries in certain areas falling within archipelagic waters. The terms and conditions for the exercise of such rights and activities, including the nature, the extent and the areas to which they apply, shall, at the request of any of the countries concerned, be regulated by bilateral agreements between them. Such rights shall not be transferred to or shared with third countries or their nationals. [5]
As of 20 June 2015, a total of 22 sovereign states have sought to claim archipelagic status. [6]
This is a list of the current archipelagic states in the world. These 22 island countries have sought to claim archipelagic status by utilising the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provisions. [6] [7]
Bolded are the five original official archipelagic states.
State | Geographical configuration [6] | Geological type [8] | Population | Area (km2) [9] | Population density (per km2) | Geographical location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Antigua and Barbuda | One archipelago with two main islands | Oceanic | 97,118 | 440 | 194 | Caribbean Sea Leeward Islands |
Bahamas | One archipelago | 392,000 | 13,878 | 23.27 | North Atlantic Ocean Lucayan Archipelago | |
Cape Verde | 518,467 | 4,033 | 125.5 | North Atlantic Ocean Macaronesia | ||
Comoros | 784,745 | 2,235 | 275 | Indian Ocean Comoro Islands | ||
Dominican Republic [10] | One archipelago with the main island (Hispaniola) shared with another country (Haiti) | Continental | 10,652,000 | 48,442 | 208.2 | Caribbean Sea Greater Antilles |
Fiji | One archipelago with two main islands | Various [note 1] | 859,178 | 18,274 | 46.4 | South Pacific Ocean Melanesia |
Grenada [note 2] | One archipelago with two main islands | Oceanic | 110,000 | 344 | 319.8 | Caribbean Sea Windward Islands |
Indonesia | One archipelago with four islands (Borneo, Sebatik, New Guinea, and Timor) shared with four other countries (Brunei, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste). | Various [note 3] | 270,203,917 | 1,904,569 | 124.7 | World Ocean Maritime Southeast Asia |
Jamaica | One archipelago with one main island | 2,847,232 | 10,991 | 252 | Caribbean Sea Greater Antilles | |
Kiribati | Three archipelagos | Oceanic | 123,346 | 811 | 152 | Pacific Ocean Micronesia |
Maldives | One archipelago | 329,198 | 298 | 1,105 | Indian Ocean Maldive Islands | |
Marshall Islands | Two archipelagos | 62,000 | 181 | 342.5 | North Pacific Ocean Micronesia | |
Mauritius | Two archipelagos[ clarification needed ] with two main islands | 1,244,663 | 2,040 | 610 | Indian Ocean Mascarene Islands | |
Papua New Guinea | One archipelago with the main island (New Guinea) shared with another country (Indonesia) | Continental shelf | 6,732,000 | 462,840 | 14.5 | South Pacific Ocean Melanesia |
Philippines | One archipelago | 101,398,120 | 300,000 | 295 | North Pacific Ocean Maritime Southeast Asia | |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | One archipelago with one main island | 120,000 | 389 | 307 | Caribbean Sea Windward Islands | |
São Tomé and Príncipe | One archipelago with two main islands | 163,000 | 1,001 | 169.1 | Atlantic Ocean Cameroon Line | |
Seychelles | Four archipelagos | Oceanic | 87,500 | 455 | 192 | Indian Ocean Seychelles Islands |
Solomon Islands | Five archipelagos | 523,000 | 28,400 | 18.1 | South Pacific Ocean Melanesia | |
Trinidad and Tobago | One archipelago with two main islands | Continental shelf | 1,299,953 | 5,131 | 254.4 | Caribbean Sea Lesser Antilles |
Tuvalu | One archipelago | Oceanic | 12,373 | 26 | 475.88 | South Pacific Ocean Polynesia |
Vanuatu | One archipelago | 243,304 | 12,190 | 19.7 | South Pacific Ocean Melanesia |
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. As of May 2023, 168 countries and the European Union are parties.
The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems (aquifers), and wetlands.
Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf. In a narrower sense, the term is often used as a synonym for the territorial sea.
Law of the sea is a body of international law governing the rights and duties of states in maritime environments. It concerns matters such as navigational rights, sea mineral claims, and coastal waters jurisdiction.
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.
Freedom of navigation (FON) is a principle of law of the sea that ships flying the flag of any sovereign state shall not suffer interference from other states, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law. In the realm of international law, it has been defined as “freedom of movement for vessels, freedom to enter ports and to make use of plant and docks, to load and unload goods and to transport goods and passengers". This right is now also codified as Article 87(1)a of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In Canadian law, Canadian Internal Waters are the waters "on the landward side of the baselines of the territorial sea of Canada."
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes waterways such as rivers and canals, and sometimes the water within small bays.
A baseline, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is the line along the coast from which the seaward limits of a state's territorial sea and certain other maritime zones of jurisdiction are measured, such as a state's exclusive economic zone. Normally, a sea baseline follows the low-water line of a coastal state. This is either the low-water mark closest to the shore or an unlimited distance from permanently exposed land, provided that some portion of elevations exposed at low tide but covered at high tide is within 3 nautical miles of permanently exposed land. When the coast is deeply indented, has fringing islands or is highly unstable, straight baselines may be used.
Ambalat is a sea block in the Celebes sea located off the east coast of Borneo. It lies to the east of the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan and to the south-east of the Malaysian state of Sabah, and it is the subject of a territorial dispute between the two nations. Malaysia refers to part of the Ambalat block as Block ND6 (formerly Block Y) and part of East Ambalat Block as Block ND7 (formerly Block Z). The deep sea blocks contain an estimated 62,000,000 barrels (9,900,000 m3) of oil and 348 million cubic meters of natural gas. Other estimates place it substantially higher: 764,000,000 barrels (121,500,000 m3) of oil and 3.96 × 1010 cubic meters (1.4 trillion cubic feet) of gas, in only one of nine points in Ambalat.
The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is a treaty that was adopted on 2 November 2001 by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The convention is intended to protect "all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character" which have been under water for over 100 years. This extends to the protection of shipwrecks, sunken cities, prehistoric art work, treasures that may be looted, sacrificial and burial sites, and old ports that cover the oceans' floors. The preservation of underwater cultural heritage is significant as it allows for the retelling of numerous historical events. As part of its duty to conduct scientific research and provide continuous education on the importance of underwater cultural heritage, UNESCO strives to maintain these sites for the enjoyment of current and future generations. The convention may provide a customary framework to help raise awareness and seek to combat the illegal looting and pirating occurring in waters worldwide. As an international body, member states of the convention agree to work towards the preservation of sunken cultural property within their jurisdiction and the high seas.
The Arctic consists of land, internal waters, territorial seas, exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters above the Arctic Circle. All land, internal waters, territorial seas and EEZs in the Arctic are under the jurisdiction of one of the eight Arctic coastal states: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. International law regulates this area as with other portions of Earth.
The Convention on the Continental Shelf was an international treaty created to codify the rules of international law relating to continental shelves. The treaty, after entering into force 10 June 1964, established the rights of a sovereign state over the continental shelf surrounding it, if there be any. The treaty was one of three agreed upon at the first United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It has since been superseded by a new agreement reached in 1982 at UNCLOS III.
The Malaysia–Philippines border is a maritime boundary located in the South China, Sulu and Celebes Seas. It separates the Malaysian state of Sabah, which is on the island of Borneo, and the Sulu Islands of the southern Philippines.
The territorial waters of Indonesia are defined according to the principles set out in Article 46 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Their boundary consists of straight lines ("baselines") linking 195 coordinate points located at the outer edge of the archipelago ("basepoints").
A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of Earth's water surface areas using physiographical or geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources, encompassing maritime features, limits and zones. Generally, a maritime boundary is delineated at a particular distance from a jurisdiction's coastline. Although in some countries the term maritime boundary represents borders of a maritime nation that are recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, maritime borders usually serve to identify the edge of international waters.
The baselines of the Philippines are the set of geodesic lines completely encircling the Philippine archipelago from where the maritime entitlements of the country are measured from. It was first established in 1961 by an act of the Congress of the Philippines which was further amended in April 2009 to optimize and conform it to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the Philippines is a signatory to. A total of 101 basepoints providing for 100 baselines were identified under Republic Act No. 9522, which identified Amianan Island as the northernmost, Frances Reef as the southernmost, Pusan Point as its easternmost and the Balabac Great Reef as the westernmost points of the main Philippine archipelago.
Japan has the eighth-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world. The total area of Japan is about 380 thousand km2. Japan's EEZ area is vast and the territorial waters and EEZ together is about 4.47 million km2.
Wawasan Nusantara, or Indonesian Archipelagic Vision, is the national vision of Indonesia towards their people, nation, and territory of the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia as a unity of political, economic, social, cultural, defensive and security-driven entities. This national insight subsequently serves as the perspective or vision of the nation towards its national goals and ideals.
The exclusive economic zone of Canada is the area of the sea in which Canada has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.