List of territorial disputes
{{Short description|none}}
{{Multiple issues|{{more citations needed|date=May 2021}}
{{original research|date=May 2021}}
{{Unbalanced|date=October 2024}}}}
{{use dmy dates |date= April 2024}}
{{Dynamic list|date=April 2025}}
File:Map of Territorial Disputes.svg
Territorial disputes have occurred throughout history, over lands around the world. Bold indicates one claimant's full control; italics indicates one or more claimants' partial control.
Ongoing disputes between UN member/observer states
= Africa =
= Americas =
== North America ==
=== Territorial disputes between Canada and the United States ===
{{Main|List of areas disputed by Canada and the United States}}
class="wikitable sortable" |
Territory
! {{flagicon|Canada}} Canadian claimant ! {{flagicon|USA}} U.S. claimant |
---|
Machias Seal Island
| rowspan="2"| New Brunswick | rowspan="2"| Maine |
North Rock |
== South America ==
class="wikitable sortable"
! width=250px|Territory ! width=120px|Claimants ! class="unsortable"|Notes |
Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute (Guyana west of the Essequibo River) and Ankoko Island
| {{GUY}} | Approximately two-thirds of Guyana's sovereign territory is claimed by Venezuela. Following arbitration, a demarcated border was established in 1905 following the Arbitral Award of 1899 but was later contested by Venezuela in 1962 following the publication of the Mallet-Prevost memorandum. The crisis was renewed recently following the discovery of oil deposits. |
Arroyo de la Invernada or Rincón de Artigas and Vila Albornoz
| {{BRA}} | Dispute in the {{Convert|237|km2|abbr=on|adj=on}} Invernada River region near Masoller, over which tributary represents the legitimate source of the Quaraí River/Cuareim River. The UN does not officially recognize the claim.{{Clarify|reason=Which claim: the Brazilian one or the Uruguayan one? Both countries are listed as claimants.|date=January 2024}} |
Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
| {{UK}} | See Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands sovereignty dispute. |
French Guiana and Suriname involving the Maroni River
| {{FRA}} |The source or tributary of the Lawa River between Suriname and French Guiana is disputed but eventually follows to the tripoint with Brazil. The Netherlands, and now Suriname, contends that the boundary follows the Malani River to the east, while France asserts that the border follows the Litani River to the west. |
New River Triangle (Tigri Area) involving the Courantyne River and the New River
| {{GUY}} | The New River Triangle (also known as the Tigri Area) is a region within the Guiana Highlands that has been disputed by Suriname and Guyana since the 19th century. It involves the Courantyne River and the interpreted source of the river. In 1871, the New River was discovered, questioning the boundary between the two states. |
Isla Brasilera/Ilha Brasileira
| {{BRA}} | Uruguayan officials claim that the island falls under their Artigas Department (the UN does not officially recognize the claim). |
Isla Suárez/Ilha de Guajará-mirim
| {{BOL}} | An island in the river Rio Mamoré that serves as a border between Bolivia and Brazil, alongside the other 80 islands that are not assigned to any country. Isla Suárez is geographically closer to Bolivia, however economically dependent on the Brazilian city of Guajará-Mirim. Both countries signed a treaty in 1958 that keeps the island in a status quo. |
Southern Patagonian Ice Field
| {{ARG}} | From Mount Fitz Roy to Cerro Murallón the border remains undefined, while in the zone of Murallón and Cerro Daudet both countries already defined a border in 1998, but their respective cartographies differ. |
= Antarctica =
{{Further|Territorial claims in Antarctica}}
The Antarctic Treaty, formed on 1 December 1959 and entered into force on 23 June 1961, is a key component for the management of Antarctica and helps provide administration for the continent, which is carried out through consultative member meetings.
class="wikitable" |
Territory
! Claimants ! Antarctic territory |
---|
Area between 25°W and 53°W
| {{flag|Argentina}} | {{flag|Argentine Antarctica}} |
Area between 53°W and 74°W
| {{flag|Argentina}} | {{flag|Argentine Antarctica}} |
Area between 74°W and 80°W
| {{flag|Chile}} | {{flag|Antártica Chilena Province}} |
= Asia =
File:South China Sea claims map.svg]]
File:India disputed areas map.svg]]
File:AZ-qa-location-en.svg after the 1994 ceasefire was signed]]
File:Israel and occupied territories map.png, including the Golan Heights, the West Bank and East Jerusalem]]
class="wikitable sortable" |
Territory
! Claimants ! Notes |
---|
Mazraat Deir al-Ashayer
| {{LBN}} | Mazraat Deir al-Ashayer is administered and controlled by Lebanon's Zahlé District, Beqaa Governorate, but claimed by Syria's Al-Zabadani District, Rif Dimashq Governorate.{{Cite web |last=Ismail |first=Safira |title=مزرعة دير العشاير.. أرض خصبة ومياه نظيفة وموسم خضراوات واعد |url=https://sana.sy/?p=1424229 |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=Syrian Arab News Agency |language=ar}} |
Abu Musa
| {{nowrap|{{IRN}} | In 1971, the Iranian navy took control of Abu Musa, at the time part of the Emirate of Sharjah. The Emirate of Sharjah later joined the United Arab Emirates, who therefore inherited an official claim on Abu Musa. As of 2022, this is an ongoing dispute, with Iran in control of the island since its takeover in 1971. |
Greater and Lesser Tunbs
| {{IRN}} | Closely related to the dispute over Abu Musa, Iran had also around the same time seized control over the Greater and Lesser Tunbs while they were under control by the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah. When Ras al-Khaimah joined the United Arab Emirates, the dispute was also inherited to the UAE. The dispute is still ongoing as of 2022. |
Bukit Jeli
| {{THA}} | |
Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan
|{{flagicon|Pakistan}} Pakistan | Administered by Pakistan and claimed by India. Part of the Kashmir conflict. |
Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh
|{{IND}} |Part of the Kashmir conflict. Both India and Pakistan claim the former independent princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (including Ladakh, which India split off from the portion that it controls in 2019), leading to the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947. A UN-mediated ceasefire put a halt to the conflict in January 1949. The UN resolution called for both the countries to demilitarise the region, following which a plebiscite would be held. However, no demilitarisation plan acceptable to both the countries could be agreed. The countries fought two further wars in 1965 and 1971. Following the latter war, the countries reached the Simla Agreement, agreeing on a Line of Control between their respective regions and committing to a peaceful resolution of the dispute through bilateral negotiations. An armed insurgency broke out in 1989 in the Indian administered part of Kashmir, demanding "independence". Pakistan has provided arms and training to the militants. {{citation |last=Korbel |first=Josef |author-link=Josef Korbel |title=Danger in Kashmir |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1966}} {{citation |first=Victoria |last=Schofield |author-link=Victoria Schofield |title=Kashmir in Conflict |publisher=I. B. Taurus & Co |location=London and New York |year=2003 |orig-year=First published in 2000 |isbn=978-1860648984 |url=https://archive.org/details/00book584554548 }} {{citation |first=Sumantra |last=Bose |author-link=Sumantra Bose |title=Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-674-01173-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/00book939526581 }} {{citation |last=Varshney |first=Ashutosh |author-link=Ashutosh Varshney |chapter=Three Compromised Nationalisms: Why Kashmir has been a Problem |editor=Raju G. C. Thomas |title=Perspectives on Kashmir: the roots of conflict in South Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xrPtAAAAMAAJ |year=1992 |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=978-0-8133-8343-9 |pages=191–234|chapter-url=https://apps.cndls.georgetown.edu/courses/rudolph/g238/files/Varshney-_1992-Why-Kashmir.pdf}} |
Junagadh and Manavadar
|{{IND}} |India annexed Junagadh (located within Gujarat) in 1947, shortly after the partition of India. Junagadh was one of the many princely states that was contested between India and Pakistan; Manavadar was a vassal state of Junagadh, alongside Babariawad and Mangrol. The dispute fell into obscurity over the next few years due to the prioritisation of the Kashmir conflict. In August 2020, Pakistan revived the decades-old dispute by highlighting "Junagadh and Manavadar" as a part of Pakistan in an official map on its "Survey of Pakistan" website. The dispute is largely symbolic in nature and is politically connected to the dispute over Kashmir, which is much more important to Pakistan.{{Cite web |last=Iwanek |first=Krzysztof |date=August 10, 2020 |title=Why Did Pakistan Lay Claim to the Indian Territory of Junagadh? |url=https://thediplomat.com/2020/08/why-did-pakistan-lay-claim-to-the-indian-territory-of-junagadh/ |access-date=October 21, 2022 |website=The Diplomat}}{{cite web |url=http://www.surveyofpakistan.gov.pk/SiteImage/Misc/files/political_map_pakistan.pdf |title=Pakistan Political Map |date=2020 |access-date=8 April 2024 |website=surveyofpakistan.gov.pk}} |
David Gareja monastery complex boundary dispute
| {{GEO}} |Since the monastery complex is located on the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan, both parties have entered a dispute over which nation it belongs to. |
Doi Lang
| {{MYA}} | |
Fasht ad Dibal and Qit'at Jaradah
| {{BHR}} | These are island territories that are disputed between Qatar and Bahrain. Controlled by Bahrain, Qatar argues that the territories do not qualify as "islands" and hence are not covered by the International Court of Justice ruling (2001–2003) that handed them over to Bahrain. |
Several areas in the Fergana Valley
| {{KGZ}} | Kyrgyzstan: Barak is a tiny Kyrgyz village in the Fergana Valley region (where Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan meet). In August 1999, the area around Barak was occupied by Uzbekistan. Barak became a de facto enclave only 1.5 km from the shifted main border.{{cite web|title=Kyrgyz In Exclave In Uzbekistan Want To Relocate To Kyrgyzstan|date=12 May 2011|url=http://www.eurasianet.org/print/63475|publisher=EurasiaNet|access-date=2014-03-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319135155/http://www.eurasianet.org/print/63475|archive-date=19 March 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan intensify work on delimitation and demarcation of state border|date=18 Feb 2014|first=Demir|last=Azizov|url=http://en.trend.az/regions/casia/uzbekistan/2243118.html|access-date=2014-03-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319133327/http://en.trend.az/regions/casia/uzbekistan/2243118.html|archive-date=19 March 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Продолжаются споры по линии прохождения узбеко-кыргызской границы. Неделимы Сох, Барак и Гавасай |url=http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1014330840 |date=22 Feb 2002 |author=Борис ГОЛОВАНОВ |publisher=Вечерний Бишкек |access-date=2014-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319134929/http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1014330840 |archive-date=19 March 2014 |url-status=live }} ([http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=40.66667,72.76667&z=12&t=K&marker0=40.66667%2C72.76667 Map]) In August 2018, Kyrgyz and Uzbek authorities agreed to a land swap that would eliminate the exclave, claiming that the exchange process may take up to two years.{{Cite news|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-uzbekistan-agree-to-work-on-land-swap-near-border/29435146.html|title=Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan Agree To Work On Land Swap Near Border|website=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty|language=en|access-date=2019-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190315023547/https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-uzbekistan-agree-to-work-on-land-swap-near-border/29435146.html|archive-date=2019-03-15|url-status=live}} As of a February 2022 report, only 85 percent of the land was traded, and then work stopped, leaving only 15 families to preserve Barak.{{Cite web |last=MASALIEVA |first=Jazgul |date=2022-02-03 |title=Residents of Kyrgyz Barak exclave ask for meeting with Kamchybek Tashiev - |url=https://24.kg/english/222767_Residents_of_Kyrgyz_Barak_exclave_ask_for_meeting_with_Kamchybek_Tashiev/ |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=24.kg |language=en-US}} Tajikistan: There are three Tajik exclaves, all of them in the Fergana Valley. One of them, the village of Sarvan, is surrounded by Uzbek territory, whereas the remaining two, the village of Vorukh and a small settlement near the Kyrgyz railway station of Kairagach, are each surrounded by Kyrgyz territory. Uzbekistan: There are four Uzbek exclaves, all inside Kyrgyz territory in the Fergana Valley. Two of them are the towns of Sokh and Shakhimardan and the other two the tiny territories of Chon-Qora and Jani-Ayil. There may be a fifth Uzbek exclave inside of Kyrgyzstan.{{cite web|url=http://cominganarchy.com/2005/12/23/enclaves-iii-the-fergana-valley/|title=Enclaves III: The Fergana Valley|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017233031/http://cominganarchy.com/2005/12/23/enclaves-iii-the-fergana-valley/ |archive-date=October 17, 2013 }} Most of the border in the area is still not demarcated. |
Isfara Valley
| {{KGZ}} |In April 2021, a violent disagreement broke out in Isfara Valley, supposedly over the installation of surveillance cameras by the Tajiks at a water intake station of a reservoir.{{Cite web |date=2021-05-28 |title=What drove the worst Kyrgyz-Tajik conflict in years? |url=https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/regional-cooperation/climate-nationalism-unresolved-borders-and-the-pandemic-drove-kyrgyz-tajik-conflict/ |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=The Third Pole |language=en-US}} It escalated into an armed conflict that reached hundreds of civilian casualties. The area's dispute is mainly due to faulty allocation of resources during and after the breakup of the Soviet Union and its republics, leading to tense relations between nations over said allocation of resources, namely water. |
Ambalat
| {{IDN}} | |
Golan Heights
| {{ISR}} | Syrian territory captured by Israel in 1967 (the Six-Day War), and unilaterally annexed by Israel in 1981. In 2008, a plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly voted by 161–1 in favor of a motion on the "occupied Syrian Golan" that reaffirmed support for UN Resolution 497; United Nations, December 5, 2008). During the Syrian civil war period, Syrian Arab Republic had lost direct control of the Eastern Golan areas and retreated from cease-fire line with Israel (in favor of various rebel and Jihadist groups), though did regain the area in 2018. |
Hatay Province
| {{TUR}} | Annexed by Turkey in 1939, claimed by Syria.{{cite web | url=https://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/54340?lang=en | title=Syria's "Lost Province": The Hatay Question Returns }} |
Shebaa Farms
| {{ISR}} | |
Israel within the Green Line
| {{ISR}} |
West Bank and East Jerusalem
| {{ISR}} ::{{small|{{Flag|Israel|name=Civilian rule by Israel proper}} applied in East Jerusalem}} ::{{small|{{Flag|Israel|tsahal|name=Military occupation}} has jurisdiction over all matters in Area C and security-related matters in Area B}} {{PLE}} {{small|has jurisdiction over all matters in Area A and civil matters in Area B}} |
Kalapani region, the smaller Susta River dispute and Antudanda disputes
| {{IND}} |Kalapani is administered by India while Susta is administered by Nepal. The few remaining border disagreements with Nepal since delineation was announced 98% complete in 2019.Territorial disputes of India and Nepal See Territorial disputes of India and Nepal. |
The exclave Artsvashen of the Gegharkunik province
| {{AZE}} | rowspan="2" | Azerbaijan and Armenia have controlled these areas as part of the wider Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. |
Karki exclave of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic The three exclaves Barkhudarli, Sofulu and Yukhari Askipara of the Qazax District | {{ARM}} |
Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories
|{{AZE}} |Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan{{cite web |date=14 March 2008 |title=General Assembly adopts resolution reaffirming territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, demanding withdrawal of all Armenian forces |url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2008/ga10693.doc.htm |access-date=23 Dec 2016 |publisher=United Nations}} but controlled by the Republic of Artsakh, which was de facto supported by Armenia until it became a government-in-exile in 2024. Artsakh claimed a part of Goranboy district, which it lost during Operation Goranboy in 1993 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, as part of Shahumyan Province. Artsakh also claimed but did not control parts of Khojavend and Tartar districts as parts of Martuni and Martakert provinces, respectively. Azerbaijan captured the surrounding territories and the city of Shusha during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, then finally all of Nagorno-Karabakh proper during a 2023 offensive. |
Korean Peninsula
| {{PRK}} | The Democratic People's Republic of Korea administers North Korea, but Article 1 of the Constitution of North Korea reads: "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is an independent socialist State representing the interests of all the Korean people." The Republic of Korea administers South Korea, but Article 3 of the Constitution of South Korea reads: "The territory of the Republic of Korea shall consist of the Korean peninsula and its adjacent islands." |
South Kuril/Chishima Islands (Northern Territories), Kuril/Chishima Islands, and South Sakhalin{{Cite web |title=北方領土問題の経緯(領土問題の発生まで) |url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/hoppo/hoppo_keii.html |access-date=2022-10-02 |website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan |language=ja}}
| {{RUS}} |After the end of World War II, the Japanese government renounced its claims of the sovereignty over the Kuril Islands (except for a few islands in the south) and South Sakhalin in The Treaty of San Francisco.{{Cite web|date=November 4, 2005|title=衆議院議員鈴木宗男君提出南樺太、千島列島の国際法的地位などに関する質問に対する答弁書|url=https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_shitsumon.nsf/html/shitsumon/b163039.htm|website=衆議院 (The House of Representatives, Japan)}} However, since the Soviet Union did not sign that treaty and the treaty did not explicitly approve Russian sovereignty over these areas, the Japanese government has stated that attribution of these regions has not yet been determined. Therefore, they do not recognize Soviet rule in those areas (current the Russian Federation).{{Cite web|title=樺太略史|url=http://kabaren.org/karafutoryakushi/|website=全国樺太連盟(All Japan Federation of Karafuto)}} For this reason, these lands are shown as No Man's Land in white color on most official maps in Japan. |
Dokdo/Takeshima
| {{KOR}} | {{see also|Liancourt Rocks dispute}} The Liancourt Rocks, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, are a set of disputed islets in the Sea of Japan. Japan claims sovereignty over the islets, pointing out the fact that in the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, Dokdo/Takeshima was not included among the territories to be renounced by Japan. South Korea currently maintains control over the territory, which it has administered since June 1954. The status of Dokdo/Takeshima remains a point of contention between the two countries. |
Islands in the Mekong river
| {{LAO}} | |
Noktundo
| {{RUS}} | In 1990, the former Soviet Union and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) signed a border treaty which made the border run through the center of the Tumen river, leaving Noktundo as a former island in Russia. South Korea refused to acknowledge the treaty.{{cite web|url=http://ru.apircenter.org/publications/the-problem-of-the-noktundo-island-in-the-media-in-south-korea/ |trans-title=The problem of the Noktundo island in the media in South Korea |script-title=ru:Проблема острова Ноктундо в средствах массовой информации Южной Кореи |language=Russian |publisher=ru.apircenter.org |accessdate=2023-11-03 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130910052035/http://ru.apircenter.org/publications/the-problem-of-the-noktundo-island-in-the-media-in-south-korea/ |archivedate=10 September 2013|url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=Westcott |first1=Ben |last2=Seo |first2=Yoonjung |title=South Korea fires warning shots at Russian military aircraft |url=https://www.10news.com/news/national-news/south-korea-fires-warning-shots-at-russian-military-aircraft |access-date=24 November 2023 |agency=10 News San Diego |date=2019}}{{cite journal |last1=Lanko |first1=D.A. |title=Russian and Japanese approaches to the Korean Peninsula: A comparison from a societal viewpoint* |journal=Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. International Relations |date=202 |volume=13 |issue=2 |page=243 |url=https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/19123/1/238-250.pdf |access-date=24 November 2023}} |
"Pedra Branca"; several islets at the eastern entrance to the Singapore Strait
| {{SGP}} | The International Court of Justice rendered its decision on 23 May 2008 that sovereignty over Pedra Branca belongs to Singapore; sovereignty over Middle Rocks belongs to Malaysia. It said sovereignty over South Ledge would remain disputed until the states could determine the ownership of the territorial waters in which it is located.Pedra Branca case, operative clause; {{citation|title=Sovereignty over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge (Malaysia/Singapore)|url=http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/index.php?pr=2026&pt=1&p1=6&p2=1&PHPSESSID=7c038bcd8cb75e026e5d43874209030d|publisher=International Court of Justice|date=23 May 2008|access-date=25 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527094640/http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/index.php?pr=2026&pt=1&p1=6&p2=1&PHPSESSID=7c038bcd8cb75e026e5d43874209030d|archive-date=27 May 2008|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}. See also {{citation|title=ICJ awards Pedra Branca's sovereignty to Singapore|url=http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/349592/1/.html|publisher=Channel NewsAsia|date=23 May 2008|access-date=23 May 2008|archive-date=25 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080525210019/http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/349592/1/.html|url-status=dead}}; {{citation|title=Court awards islet to Singapore|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7416473.stm|work=BBC News|date=23 May 2008}} |
"Point 20"; a small area of land reclaimed from the sea by Singapore
| {{SGP}} | Malaysia claims the land was reclaimed in its territorial waters. |
O'Tangav area (claimed as part of Stung Treng Province)
| {{LAO}} |
Area near Preah Vihear Temple (Khao Phra Wihan)
| {{THA}} | Temple complex awarded to Cambodia by an International Court of Justice ruling in 1962; "promontory" measuring 0.3 km2 immediately adjacent to temple awarded to Cambodia by ICJ ruling in 2013; both countries acknowledge continuing dispute over an additional 4.3 km2 immediately northwest of the 2013 ruling's area. |
Part of Sabah (North Borneo)
| {{MYS}} | The Philippines retains a claim on the eastern part of Sabah (see North Borneo dispute) on the basis claimed by the Government of the Philippines that the territory is only leased by the former Sultanate of Sulu to British North Borneo Company, of which the Philippines argued that it should be the successor state of all Sulu past territories. |
Saudi Arabia–United Arab Emirates border dispute
| {{KSA}} | |
Siachen Glacier and Saltoro Ridge area
| rowspan="2" |{{IND}} | Controlled by India after Operation Meghdoot in 1984.{{cite web|url=https://indianairforce.nic.in/content/op-meghdoot|title=OP MEGHDOOT|work=Indian Air Force|access-date=2020-09-17}} |
Sir Creek
| A dispute over where in the estuary the line falls; only small areas of marsh land are disputed, but significant maritime territory is involved. It is divided mid-creek. |
Parts of Three Pagodas Pass
| {{MYA}} | |
The islands of Ukatnyy, Zhestky and Malyy Zhemchuzhnyy{{cite web|url=http://www.ewnc.org/node/3946|title=КАСПИЙСКИЙ САММИТ НЕ СОСТОЯЛСЯ|access-date=5 October 2014}}
| {{RUS}} | |
Ungar-Too (Ungar-Tepa) mountain{{cite web|url=http://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-uzbekistan-border-mountain-dispute-military-tensions/27631743.html|title=Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan Deploy Troops In Dispute Over Border Mountain |publisher=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty|access-date=24 October 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.kabar.kg/eng/society/full/16983|title=Uzbek side withdrew a police post from Ungar-Too |publisher=Kabar|access-date=24 October 2014}}
| {{UZB}} | |
Eastern Ossetia (Truso Gorge, Ghuda Gorge, Kobi Plateau)
| {{Flag|South Ossetia}} {{small|South Ossetia is internationally recognized as a proxy of {{RUS}}}} | Ossetia claims two gorges and their connecting plateau, all controlled by Georgia as part of the Kazbegi Municipality, as "historically eastern Ossetian lands." South Ossetia claims to have attempted to press these claims during the Russo-Georgian War, but was deterred by Russia, with the issue flaring again in 2018 and 2019.{{cite web |title=Land of abandoned villages |url=https://project.jam-news.net/land-of-abandoned-villages |website=JAM News |access-date=11 September 2024}}{{cite web |last1=Zurabashvili |first1=Tornike |title=Backgrounder: Tskhinvali's Territorial Claims in Kazbegi Municipality |url=https://civil.ge/archives/275926 |website=Civil Georgia |date=7 February 2019 |access-date=11 September 2024}} |
= Europe =
File:Annexation of Southern and Eastern Ukraine.svg cited recognition of Russia's sovereignty over the annexed territories (pictured) as a condition for peace talks with Ukraine.{{cite news|title=Putin Signals Readiness for Peace Talks if Kyiv Cedes Occupied Regions|url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/05/putin-signals-readiness-for-peace-talks-if-kyiv-cedes-occupied-regions-a79877|work=The Moscow Times|date=5 January 2023}}]]
= Oceania =
class="wikitable"
! Territory ! Claimants ! Notes |
Matthew Island and Hunter Island
| {{FRA}} ({{Flag|New Caledonia|local}}) | |
Minerva Reefs
| {{TON}} | Fiji claims that the entire reef is submerged at high tide, negating use of Minerva as a basis for any sovereignty or maritime EEZ claim by Tonga under the rules of UNCLOS. |
Swains Island
| {{flagicon|United States}} United States | Tokelau's claim is unsupported by New Zealand, of which Tokelau is a dependency. New Zealand recognises US sovereignty over Swains Island.{{cite web| url=http://untreaty.un.org/unts/60001_120000/28/17/00054814.pdf | title=Treaty on the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Tokelau and the United States of America (with map). Signed at Atafu on 2 December 1980. Authentic texts: English and Tokelauan. Registered by the United States on 25 July 1991 | date=July 25, 1991 | language=en, tkl | access-date=August 28, 2011}} {{Dead link|date=February 2013}}{{Clarify|reason=This is confusing. Comment seems to suggest territory is not disputed. [It is disputed by Tokelau.] If so, then why is it even in this list?|date=February 2013}} |
Wake Island
| {{flagicon|United States}} United States | |
Ongoing disputes involving states with limited international recognition
File:ROC Administrative and Claims.svg]]
{{See also|List of states with limited recognition}}
{{GEO}}
| {{Main|Georgian–Ossetian conflict}}
|-
|{{flag|China}}
{{ROC}}
{{VNM}}
{{PHL}} (part)
{{MYS}} (part)
{{BRN}} (part)
| Each of the claimant countries except Brunei controls one or more of the individual islands.
|-
| 'Border' checkpoint near Strovilia
| {{flag|United Kingdom}}
{{flag|Northern Cyprus}}
| Northern Cyprus controls and administers the border checkpoint near Strovilia.
UK's claim in regard to its Sovereign Base Areas.
This also involves {{CYP}}; the checkpoint is partially on UN-administered land, and Cyprus claims all of the island. (See: Europe)
|-
| In 1945, after the surrender of Japan, the Republic of China unilaterally annexed the islands of Taiwan and Penghu into its Taiwan Province, a move not recognized by the Allies. Shortly before the cessation of hostiles in the Chinese Civil War, the ROC government withdrew to the island of Taiwan, which remained under military occupation. Japan formally relinquished the claims to Taiwan and Penghu in 1952 under the Treaty of San Francisco. The sovereignty of Taiwan has remained in question to this day. See also the Political status of Taiwan.
|-
| Trans-Karakoram Tract, including Shaksgam Valley
| {{flag|China}}
{{ROC}}
{{IND}}
| Pakistan was originally a party to the dispute but relinquished its claim and accepted Chinese sovereignty over the area in 1963.
|-
| Transnistria (including Bender)
| {{flag|Transnistria}}
{{MDA}}
|
|-
| Originally part of China during the Qing dynasty per the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta but came under Russian influence in the 20th century. Sovereignty over the area has not been officially relinquished by the ROC, which would claim its northernmost point to be at 53°57'N in the Sayan Mountains. However, the claim is not actively pursued by the ROC government.
|-
| Tumen River (disputed sovereignty of certain islands)The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) do not recognize each other.
| {{flag|China}}
{{PRK}}
{{ROC}}
{{KOR}}
| The Republic of China would consider the 1909 Gando Convention as the basis of the China–North Korea border.
|-
| Tumen River mouth
| Navigation and control of the mouth of the river Tumen is disputed between the Republic of China and DPRK along with the Republic of Korea.
|-
| {{MDA}}
{{flag|Transnistria}}
|
|-
|Eastern part of Wakhan Corridor
| The border was established between Afghanistan and China in an agreement between the British and the Russians in 1895 as part of the Great Game, although the Chinese and Afghans did not finally agree on the border until 1963.{{Cite web
| title = International Boundary Study - Afghanistan – China Boundary
| author = Office of the Geographer
| date = 1969-05-01
| accessdate = 2017-02-03
| publisher = Bureau of Intelligence and Research
| url = http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/limitsinseas/IBS089.pdf
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150103225351/http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/limitsinseas/IBS089.pdf
| archive-date = 2015-01-03
| language =
| quote = The Afghanistan–China boundary agreement, signed on November 22, 1963, was the fifth of these boundaries treaties initiated by the Chinese communists.
}} The Kingdom of Afghanistan and the People's Republic of China demarcated their border in 1963.{{cite wikisource |title=中华人民共和国和阿富汗王国边界条约 |trans-title=Afghanistan-China Border Agreement |wslanguage=zh |date=1963-11-22}}{{cite web|url=http://www.npc.gov.cn/wxzl/gongbao/2000-12/16/content_5000869.htm|script-title=zh:全国人民代表大会常务委员会关于签订中华人民共和国和阿富汗王国边界条约的决议|language=zh-hans|publisher=National People's Congress|access-date=12 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017033555/http://www.npc.gov.cn/wxzl/gongbao/2000-12/16/content_5000869.htm|archive-date=17 October 2013|url-status=live}} However, the settlement is not recognized by the Republic of China.
|-
| {{MAR}}
{{SADR}}
| The United Nations keeps the Western Sahara in its list of non-self-governing territories and considers the sovereignty issue as unresolved pending a final solution. To that end, the UN sent a mission in the territory to oversee a referendum on self-determination in 1991, but it never happened. Administration was relinquished by Spain in 1976.
|-
| Yalu River (disputed sovereignty of certain islands)
| {{flag|China}}
{{PRK}}
{{ROC}}
{{KOR}}
| Generally held to have been resolved in 2005. North Korea is allocated all of the large islands in the lower Yalu River, including Pidan and Sindo at the mouth.Even official Chinese maps award these islands to North Korea, such as the provincial map on p. 41 in the 2005 Chinese atlas "Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Jiaotong Dituji" {{ISBN|7-80104-652-8}}, (http://www.starmap.com.cn) The river's maritime rights remain shared between North Korea and the PRC. However, the settlement is not recognized by the Republic of China.
|}
Ongoing boundary disputes within a state
|-
| Kotia villages in Koraput district
| {{flagicon image|border=no|Seal of Odisha.png}} Odisha
{{flagicon image|border=no|Emblem_of_Andhra_Pradesh_before_2014.svg}} Andhra Pradesh
|-
| Langpih, Borduar, Nongwah, Matamur, Deshdemoreah Block I and Block II, and Khanduli
| {{flagicon image|border=no|Emblem_of_India_(without_motto).svg}} Assam
{{flagicon image|border=no|Seal of Meghalaya.svg}} Meghalaya
|-
| {{flagicon image|border=no|Emblem_of_India_(without_motto).svg|20px}} Assam
{{flagicon image|border=no|Emblem_of_India_(without_motto).svg}} Mizoram
|-
| Villages in Nabarangpur and Jharsuguda districts
| {{flagicon image|border=no|Seal of Odisha.png}} Odisha
{{flagicon image|border=no|Coat of arms of Chhattisgarh.svg}} Chhattisgarh
|-
| Phuldungsei
| {{flagicon image|border=no|Emblem_of_India_(without_motto).svg}} Tripura
{{flagicon image|border=no|Emblem_of_India_(without_motto).svg}} Mizoram
|-
| Disputed territories of Northern Iraq
| {{flag|Iraq}}
| {{flag|Iraq}} proper
{{flag|Iraqi Kurdistan}}
| Iraq's autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan claims and controls parts of the governorates of Nineveh, Arbil, Kirkuk and Diyala.
|-
| {{ill|Put Point|es|Punto Put}}
| {{flag|Mexico}}
| {{flag|Campeche}}
{{flag|Quintana Roo}}
{{flag|Yucatán}}
| The three states claim three different borders between them.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}
|-
| Fiat Auto Poland factory and nearest areas
| {{flag|Poland}}
| The territory has historically been a part of the town of Bieruń. In years 1975–1991 Bieruń was a part of Tychy. The Fiat Auto Poland (formerly FSM factory) remaining in Tychy was a condition of Bieruń's separation. In the 90s, Bieruń has regained the Homera osiedle which was part of the disputed area.{{cite web|title=Tychy kontra Bieruń. Jak Kargul i Pawlak, ale z Fiatem w tle|url=http://www.mmsilesia.pl/248273/tychy-kontra-bierun-jak-kargul-i-pawlak-ale-z-fiatem-w-tle|first=Krzysztof|last=Tomczyk|website=Moje Miasto Silesia|publisher=Media Regionalne|language=pl|date=4 March 2010|access-date=18 September 2014}}
|-
| {{flag|Spain}}
| {{flag|Province of Burgos}}
{{flag|Álava}}
|The municipalities of Condado de Treviño and La Puebla de Arganzón are part of the Province of Burgos within the Castille and Léon community, whilst being completely surrounded by the Province of Álava within the Basque Country, being one of the few internal territorial discontinuities to survive the 1833 reorganization of Spanish internal divisions. The Basque claim the territory on cultural and territorial continuity grounds, while the Castillians argue for the status quo on historical grounds.
|-
| A wide section from the 35th parallel north to {{convert|2|km}} south.
| rowspan="3" |{{USA}}
| {{flag|Tennessee}}
{{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}}
| Based on an inaccurate measurement in 1818, the Georgia–Tennessee border does not match the 35th parallel, which was defined as the border by Congress in 1796. Georgia's claim would give it access to the Tennessee River and mitigate the impact of a severe drought.{{cite news|first=Shaila|last=Dewan|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/us/22water.html|title=Georgia Claims a Sliver of the Tennessee River|work=The New York Times|date=February 22, 2008}} See Tennessee–Georgia water dispute.
|-
| California–Oregon border
| {{flag|Oregon}}
{{flag|California}}
|Location errors in an 1868–1870 survey to demarcate the California–Oregon border created a dispute between Oregon and California, which upon statehood had established the 42nd parallel north as its de jure border, based on the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty between the U.S. and Spain. The dispute continues to this day, as there are about {{convert|31000|acres}} of disputed territory administered by Oregon, and about {{convert|20000|acres}} administered by California.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-19-mn-9232-story.html| title=California-Oregon Dispute : Border Fight Has Townfolk on Edge|date=May 19, 1985|first=Jeff|last=Barnard|work= Los Angeles Times|quote=Preliminary studies indicate that, as the result of an 1870 surveying error, Oregon has about 31,000 acres of California, while California has about 20,000 acres of Oregon.}} The border should follow the 42nd parallel straight west from the 120th meridian west to the Pacific. Instead it zigzags, and only one of the many surveyor's markers put down in 1868 actually is on the 42nd parallel.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/24/us/sea-riches-spur-feud-on-border.html|title=SEA RICHES SPUR FEUD ON BORDER| first=Wallace|last=Turner|work= New York Times|date= March 24, 1985}}{{cite web|url=https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2013/jun/14/will-north-coast-marine-protected-areas-lead-war-o/ |first=Hank|last=Sims| date=June 14, 2013|website=Lost Coast Outpost|title=Will the North Coast Marine Protected Areas Spark a War With Oregon?}}{{cite map|url=https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/conservation/marine/mpas/network/northern-california#27023457-pyramid-point-state-marine-conservation-area|quote=Available from:
|-
| New Mexico–Texas Panhandle border
| {{flag|Texas}}
{{flag|New Mexico}}
| The border was defined as the 103rd meridian but an 1859 survey marked it too far west, mistakenly putting present-day towns of Farwell, Texline, and a part of Glenrio in Texas. New Mexico's draft constitution used the 103rd meridian as intended. The New Mexico Senate passed a bill to file a lawsuit to recover the strip, but it has not become law.{{cite web|url=http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/1357432.html|title=Border War Brewing?|author=Daniel Gertson|access-date=2018-04-17|archive-date=2018-04-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418162341/http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/1357432.html|url-status=dead}} The land and towns are administered by Texas.
|-
| Labrador-Quebec border dispute
| {{flag|Canada}}
| {{flag|Newfoundland and Labrador}}
{{flag|Quebec}}
| On federal government maps, the border is drawn using Newfoundland and Labrador's claims.{{cite web |last1=Natural Resources Canada |title=Reference Maps |url=https://natural-resources.canada.ca/maps-tools-publications/maps/atlas-canada/reference-maps |access-date=18 April 2025 |date=24 July 2024}}
|}
Historic disputes, subsequently settled
= Africa =
= Americas =
class="wikitable sortable" |
Territory
! Former claimants ! Dispute started ! Dispute settled ! Notes |
---|
Alaska boundary dispute
| {{flag|United States|1896}} | 1821 | 1903 | Disputed between the United States and Canada (then a British Dominion with its foreign affairs controlled from London). The dispute had been going on between the Russian and British Empires since 1821, and was inherited by the United States as a consequence of the Alaska Purchase in 1867. It was resolved by arbitration in 1903 with a delegation that included 3 Americans, 2 Canadians, and 1 British delegate that became the swing vote. By a 4 to 2 vote, the final resolution favored the American position. Canada did not get an outlet from the Yukon gold fields to the sea. The disappointment and anger in Canada was directed less at the United States, and more at the British government for betraying Canadian interests in pursuit of a friendly relationship between Britain and the United States. |
Aroostook War
| {{flag|United States|1896}} | 1838 | 1842 | Disputed border between the state of Maine and the provinces of New Brunswick and Lower Canada. |
Aves Island
| {{VEN}} | 1584 | 2007 | Dominica abandoned the claim to the island in 2007, but continues to claim the adjacent seas, as do some neighboring states. |
Atacama border dispute
| {{BOL}} | 1879 | 1904 | |
Guaíra Falls
| {{BRA}} | 1872 | 1982 | The disputed islands were submerged by the reservoir of Itaipú. |
Chamizal dispute
| {{flag|United States|1896}} | 1898 | 1963 | Disputed border within the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez region. |
Cresap's War
| {{flag|Maryland}} | 1730 | 1767 | Dispute over the northern border of the Province of Maryland and southern border of Province of Pennsylvania, particularly west of the Susquehanna River. Settled by the drawing of the Mason–Dixon line. |
New Hampshire Grants/Vermont
| New Hampshire | 1749 | 1791 | In 1664 King Charles II decided the west bank of the Connecticut River was the eastern boundary of New York, so that that province included all of what later became the state of Vermont. During 1749–64, Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire issued well over a hundred "grants", offering lands for sale west of the river in what would become Vermont. In 1764, King George III attempted to end the dispute by ruling that the region belonged to New York. But New York would not recognize the property claims of numerous settlers whose claims were based on Wentworth's grants, so local governments and militias resisted New York's rule. In 1777, the politicians of the disputed territory declared it independent of New York, Britain, and New Hampshire, calling it the State of Vermont. Vermont existed for 14 years as an unrecognized de facto independent country, considered by New York to be a district in rebellion. Negotiations between New York and Vermont in 1790 removed impediments to Vermont's admission to the Union in 1791. |
Delaware Wedge
| {{flag|Delaware}} | 1750s | 1921 | A gore created when the borders of the colonies Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania were defined. Dispute over the borders between the three colonies dates to the foundation of each during the middle 17th century. A series of defined lines and arcs were laid out by statute to settle the disputes, the most famous of which was the Mason–Dixon line. The Wedge was left out of all three colonies (and later U.S. states), and remained a matter of dispute until it was formally resolved to assign the Wedge to Delaware in 1921. |
Eastern shore of the Narragansett Bay
| Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations | 1636 | 1898 | Claimed by both Rhode Island and Plymouth Colony. Plymouth's claim was inherited by the newly created Province of Massachusetts Bay when the latter was created in 1691 from the merger of earlier Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies. A royal decree in 1746 assigned the land to Rhode Island, but Massachusetts continued to press its claim until 1898. |
New York – New Jersey Line War
| {{flag|New York}} | 1701 | 1756 | Dispute over the southern border of Province of New York and the northern border of the Province of New Jersey. Raiding parties kidnapped and burned crops. |
Isla Martín García
| {{ARG}} | 1879 | 1973 | After the Conquest of the Desert was launched in 1879, many indigenous leaders captured were confined there. The island was transferred to Argentine Navy jurisdiction in 1886. The island's distance from the Uruguayan territory is less than 3 km, and its jurisdictional status was formally established by the Treaty of Río de la Plata between Uruguay and Argentina on November 19, 1973. |
Cordillera del Cóndor-Cenepa River
| {{PER}} | 1828 | 1998 | |
Caquetá-Putumayo
| {{PER}} | 1821 | 1934 | |
Acre-Pando
| {{PER}} | 1825 | 1909 | |
Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case
| {{ARG}} | 1881 | 1902 | After the signature of the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina differing interpretations on whether the highest Andean peaks (favouring Argentina) or the continental divide (favouring Chile) was to be considered the boundary. |
Puna de Atacama dispute
| {{ARG}} | 1889 | 1898 | |
Clipperton Island
| {{flag|Mexico}} | 1897 | 1931 | Disputed between France and Mexico. On January 28, 1931, King Victor Emanuel, selected as a neutral arbitrator, finally declared Clipperton to be a French possession, and it has remained relatively undisputed ever since. |
Beagle conflict
| {{ARG}} | 1898 | 1982 | |
{{ill|Río Encuentro-Alto Palena dispute|es|Disputa limítrofe del río Encuentro-Alto Palena}}
| {{ARG}} | 1913 | 1966 | |
{{ill|Pirara dispute|pt|Questão do Pirara}}
| {{flag|British Guiana}} | 1842 | 1904 | {{see also|Brazil–Guyana border}} In 1842, a Brazilian ambassador went to London to suggest that the dispute be submitted to neutral arbitration. The United Kingdom and Brazil signed a treaty on November 6, 1901, agreeing to arbitration to establish the boundary between northern Brazil and British Guiana. A decision was taken by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy to resolve the Pirara Question, in which {{convert|19,630|km²}} would be handed over to British Guiana, and {{convert|13,570|km²}} would be returned to Brazil, thus defining the limits of the border.Beatriz Garcia, The Amazon from an International Law Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2011) pp. 56-57 |
Laguna del Desierto
| {{ARG}} | 1949 | 1994 | |
Missouri
| {{USA}} | 1861 | 1865 | After the Missouri secession, the State of Missouri was claimed by both the United States and Confederate States until the defeat of the Confederacy in the American Civil War |
Border of New Hampshire and Canada
| {{USA}} | 1783 | 1842 | Ill-defined terms of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the Revolutionary War left the boundary of the state of New Hampshire and Canada in doubt. The lack of a precise definition of the "northwesternmost head of the Connecticut River" as defined by the Treaty of Paris left the land that is now the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire within the conflicting jurisdiction of both the United States and Great Britain. In 1832 residents of the area established the short-lived Republic of Indian Stream in the area; the minuscule population of the putative nation never exceeded about 300. The boundary was finally settled definitively by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842. |
Southern edge of Labrador
|{{flag|Canada}} | {{flag|Newfoundland and Labrador}} |1927 | This was formerly an international dispute between Canada, which includes Quebec, and the Dominion of Newfoundland, then an independent country. The case came before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which in March 1927 delivered a win for Newfoundland and granted it the disputed land. The decision was further recognized by the governments of Canada and of Newfoundland when the latter joined Confederation in 1949 as the tenth province of Canada. Quebec has never accepted the border. |
Sverdrup Islands
| {{NOR}} | 1928 | 1930 | In 1928 Norway asserted its claim of sovereignty over the Sverdrup Islands. The islands are named after Norwegian explorer Otto Sverdrup, who explored and mapped them from 1898 to 1902 with the vessel Fram, although some were previously inhabited by Inuit. Sverdrup claimed the islands for Norway, but the Norwegian government did not pursue the claim until 1928. At that point, the Norwegian government raised the claim, primarily to use the islands as bargaining chips in negotiations with the United Kingdom over the status of the Arctic island Jan Mayen and the Antarctic Bouvet Island. On November 11, 1930, Norway ceded the Sverdrup Islands to Canada, in exchange for British recognition of Norway's sovereignty over Jan Mayen.{{cite book|first=Pierre|last=Berton|title=The Arctic Grail: the Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818–1909|year=1988|publisher=Viking|isbn=978-0-670-82491-5|page=629}} |
San Andrés and Providencia, Bajo Nuevo Bank, and Serranilla Bank
| {{COL}} | 1886 | 2012{{cite web |url=http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/124/17162.pdf |title=Territorial and maritime dispute (Nicaragua vs Colombia) |access-date=23 November 2012 |author=Fallo de 2012 de la Corte Internacional de Justicia }} |Jamaica implicitly withdrew its claim by accepting the nautical chart affixed to a 1993 treaty that established a Joint Regime Area with Colombia, excluding Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank.{{cite book |last1=Charney |first1=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XkgfZJjh3BUC |title=International Maritime Boundaries, Vol. 2–3 |author2=American Society of International Law |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |year=2004 |isbn=978-90-411-0345-1 |location=Boston, United States |pages=2616 |id=p2179-2192 |author-link2=American Society of International Law}} Honduras and the United States continue to dispute sovereignty over both banks. |
Tacna–Arica compromise
| {{CHI}} | 1883 | 1929 | |
Pacific Ocean Sea border
| {{CHL}} | 1985 | Part of the broader territorial dispute. |
Erik the Red's Land
| 1931 | |
{{ill|Isla Portillos|es}}
|{{CRC}} | 2010 | 2018 | On 2 Feb 2018, the ICJ rendered a decision in a border dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica regarding {{ill|Isla Portillos|es}}. Nicaragua was left with just the Laguna Los Portillos and its short strip of beach. The court also decided that the sea just outside of the lagoon would be Costa Rican waters. The ICJ concluded that the whole beach is Costa Rican except for the part directly between the lagoon and the Caribbean Sea – now a tiny enclave of Nicaraguan territory separated from the rest of the country.{{cite web|url=http://www.polgeonow.com/2018/02/nicaragua-costa-rica-border-dispute-ruling-icj-2018.html|title=Costa Rica & Nicaragua Settle Border Dispute in Court|work=Political Geography Now|date=3 Feb 2018|access-date=2018-02-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205072738/http://www.polgeonow.com/2018/02/nicaragua-costa-rica-border-dispute-ruling-icj-2018.html|archive-date=5 February 2018|url-status=live}} |
Hans Island
| {{CAN}} | 1972 | 2022 | Claimed by both Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark (on behalf of Greenland). Resolved by treaty splitting the island between Canada and Greenland.{{cite news |last1=Chase |first1=Steven |title=Canada and Denmark reach settlement over disputed Arctic island, sources say |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-and-denmark-reach-settlement-over-disputed-arctic-island/ |website=The Globe and Mail |date=10 June 2022 |access-date=11 June 2022}} |
Oyster Pond
| {{NLD}} | 2016 | 2023 | Claimed by both The Kingdom of the Netherlands (on behalf of Sint Maarten) and France (on behalf of Saint Martin).{{cite news |url=https://nos.nl/artikel/2142774-nederland-en-frankrijk-ruzien-over-grens-sint-maarten.html |title=Nederland en Frankrijk ruziën over grens Sint Maarten | date= November 12, 2016 | access-date= April 10, 2020 | language= nl}}{{cite news |url=http://www.soualigapost.com/en/news/6397/coop%C3%A9ration/border-oyster-pond-reason-behind-another-conflict |title=The border at Oyster Pond, the reason behind another conflict | date= November 2, 2016 | access-date= April 10, 2020}}{{cite news |url=http://www.dclportal.dreamhosters.com/news/latest-news/9228-negotiations-on-oyster-pond-border-to-commence-late-2019 |title=Negotiations on Oyster Pond border to commence late 2019 |date=August 15, 2019 |access-date=April 10, 2020 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224231215/http://www.dclportal.dreamhosters.com/news/latest-news/9228-negotiations-on-oyster-pond-border-to-commence-late-2019 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |url=https://antilliaansdagblad.com/sint-maarten/20126-frankrijk-belemmert-herbouw-oyster-pond |title=Frankrijk belemmert herbouw Oyster Pond | date= September 15, 2019 | access-date= April 10, 2020 | language= nl}} Resolved by agreement splitting the bay in the middle.{{cite news |last1=Bénis |first1=Olivier |title=La France a une nouvelle frontière avec les Pays-Bas (dans les Antilles) |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/la-france-a-une-nouvelle-frontiere-avec-les-pays-bas-dans-les-antilles-4596309 |work=France Inter |date=27 May 2023 |language=fr}} |
= Antarctica =
class="wikitable sortable" |
Territory
! Former claimants ! Dispute started ! Dispute settled ! Notes |
---|
Bouvet Island
| {{NOR}} | 1927 | 1929 |The United Kingdom claimed this Antarctic island as Lindsay/Liverpool Island based on sightings going back to 1808, but Norway landed there in 1927. In November 1929, Britain renounced its claim to the island.{{cite book |last=Barr |first=Susan |year=1987 |title=Norway's Polar Territories |location=Oslo |publisher=Aschehoug |page=63 |isbn=978-82-03-15689-2}} |
= Asia =
class="wikitable sortable" |
Territory
! Former claimants ! Dispute started ! Dispute settled ! Notes |
---|
Israeli–Lebanese maritime border
| {{flag|Israel}} |2010 |2022 | |
Katchatheevu
| {{flag|Sri Lanka}} | 1921 | 1974 | The dispute on the status of the island of Kachatheevu was settled in 1974 by an agreement between both countries.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=2013-08-31|title=Kachchatheevu was not ceded to Sri Lanka, Centre tells court|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kachchatheevu-was-not-ceded-to-sri-lanka-centre-tells-court/article5076961.ece|access-date=2021-09-26|issn=0971-751X}} But still some cases are ongoing in High Court of Madras which are filed earlier regarding this dispute stating as illegally issued to Sri Lanka.{{Cite news|last=Correspondent|first=Legal|date=2018-08-22|title=HC wants to know status of case filed by Jayalalithaa to retrieve Katchatheevu|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/hc-wants-to-know-status-of-case-filed-by-jayalalithaa-to-retrieve-katchatheevu/article24748091.ece|access-date=2021-05-31|issn=0971-751X}} Several actions were still taken by the union government of India to retrieve that island back to Indian territory once again.{{Cite news |date=2021-02-08 |title=Centre making sincere efforts to retrieve Katchatheevu: V.K. Singh |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/centre-making-sincere-efforts-to-retrieve-katchatheevu/article33775766.ece |access-date=2022-04-16 |issn=0971-751X}} |
Great Rann of Kutch
|{{IND}} | 1965 | 1968 | In January 1965, Pakistan claimed the area of the Great Rann of Kutch on the basis of the Sindh province,{{Citation |title=Triumph and tragedy:: the Rann of Kutch and the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War |date=2013 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cold-war-in-south-asia/triumph-and-tragedy/910E410121641DFE773BC5126C326892 |work=The Cold War in South Asia: Britain, the United States and the Indian Subcontinent, 1945–1965 |pages=301–344 |editor-last=McGarr |editor-first=Paul M. |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9781139022071.013 |isbn=978-1-107-00815-1 |access-date=2022-05-14|url-access=subscription }} eventually launching an operation in the area in April 1965. Later the same year, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Wilson persuaded the combatants to end hostilities and establish a tribunal to resolve the dispute. A verdict was reached in 1968 which saw Pakistan getting 10% of its claim of {{convert|9100|km2|sqmi |
2}}. 90% was awarded to India, although India claimed 100% of the region. |
Tiran and Sanafir Islands
|{{KSA}} |1906 |2017 |These islands were transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2017. |
Arabi Island and Farsi Island
|{{flag|Iran|1964}} |1968 |1968 |These islands were disputed between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In 1968 Iran and Saudi Arabia had an agreement that Farsi island be given to Iran and Arabi island be given to Saudi Arabia. |
Bay of Bengal Maritime Boundary between Bangladesh and India
| {{IND}} | 1974 | 2014 | India and Bangladesh had engaged in eight rounds of bilateral negotiations starting 1974 but it remained inconclusive until 2009. In October 2009, Bangladesh served India with notice of arbitration proceedings under the UNCLOS.{{pb}}The Arbitration Tribunal delivered the ruling on 7 July 2014 and settled the dispute.{{Cite web |title=Bay of Bengal Maritime Boundary Arbitration between Bangladesh and India |url=https://pca-cpa.org/en/cases/18/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=pca-cpa.org}} |
Indo-Bangladesh enclaves, adverse possessions and undemarcated land boundaries
| {{IND}} | 1947 | 2015 | Following Partition of Bengal (1947), the issues of adverse possessions, enclaves and unmarked boundary arose. Inside the main part of Bangladesh, there were 111 Indian enclaves (69.45 km2), while inside the main part of India, there were 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (28.77 km2). In 1974 Bangladesh approved a proposed treaty, Land Boundary Agreement, to exchange all enclaves within each other's territories, but India did not ratify it. Another agreement was agreed upon in 2011 to exchange enclaves and adverse possessions. With respect to adverse possessions, India received 7,110.2 acres of land and transferred 17,160.63 acres to Bangladesh. India ratified the agreement by constitutional amendment in May 2015.{{cite web | author=India | title=Everything you need to know: Land swap in offing with Bangladesh to end disputes | website=The Indian Express | date=2 December 2014 | url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/explained-land-swap-in-offing/ | access-date=29 May 2015}} |
Muhurichar river island
| {{IND}} | 1974 | 2011 | Historically controlled by India but claimed by Bangladesh, disputed from approximately 1974.{{Cite news |date=2016-11-17 |title=India, Bangladesh inspect disputed land in Tripura |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/India-Bangladesh-inspect-disputed-land-in-Tripura/article16666703.ece |access-date=2022-06-12 |issn=0971-751X}} An agreement was reached on the demarcation of the border in the area in 2011,{{cite web|url=https://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/bangladesh/document/papers/lba2011.pdf |title=Protocol to the Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh Concerning the Demarcation of the Land Boundary Between India and Bangladesh and Related Matters |website=South Asia Terrorism Portal}} and in 2019 the Indian government confirmed that it no longer had any outstanding boundary dispute with Bangladesh.{{Cite news|url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/strip-maps-covering-98-pc-of-indo-nepal-boundary-jointly-finalised-by-two-countries-govt-119062601295_1.html|title = Strip maps covering 98% of Indo-Nepal boundary jointly finalised by two countries: Govt|newspaper = Business Standard India|date = 26 June 2019|agency = Press Trust of India}} |
South Talpatti/New Moore/Purbasha Island
| {{IND}} | 1975 | 2010 | This former dispute over a small island never more than two meters above sea level was contested from the island's appearance in the 1970s to its disappearance, likely due to climate change,{{cite web |url=http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/rising-sea-level-settles-border-dispute-20100324-qwum.html |title=Rising sea level settles border dispute |last1=Wade |first1=Matt |date=March 25, 2010 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=April 4, 2010}} in the first decade of the 2000s. Though land disputes no longer exist, the maritime boundary was not settled until 2014.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8584665.stm | work=BBC News | title=Bay of Bengal island 'disappears' | date=2010-03-24}}{{cite web|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1817/18170730.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010908035225/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1817/18170730.htm|title=Of Indo-Bangladesh distrust|author=A. G. Noorani|url-status=usurped|archive-date=2001-09-08}}{{cite news|url=http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/disputed-isle-in-bay-of-bengal-vanishes-20100324-qwy0.html|title=Disputed isle in Bay of Bengal vanishes|first=Nirmala|last=George|date=March 24, 2010}} |
North Sakhalin Island
| {{flag|Russian Empire|1858}} | 1845 | 1875 | Japan unilaterally proclaimed sovereignty over the whole island in 1845, but its claims were ignored by the Russian Empire. The 1855 Treaty of Shimoda acknowledged that both Russia and Japan had joint rights of occupation to Sakhalin, without setting a definite territorial demarcation. As the island became settled in the 1860s and 1870s, this ambiguity led to increasing friction between settlers. Attempts by the Tokugawa shogunate to purchase the entire island from the Russian Empire failed, and the new Meiji government was unable to negotiate a partition of the island into separate territories.{{pb}}In 1875 by the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, Japan agreed to give up its claims on Sakhalin in exchange for undisputed ownership of the Kuril Islands. In 1905 under the Treaty of Portsmouth Japan gained Sakhalin to the 50th parallel, but lost it again in 1945. |
Palmas Island (modern-day Miangas Island)
| {{flag|Philippines|1919}} | 1906 | 1928 | Dispute between the United States and the Netherlands over the Palmas island located south of the Philippines, which was then American territory. The Netherlands believed that the islands were part of the Dutch East Indies. The territorial dispute was solved through the Island of Palmas case which decided that the Palmas Island belongs to the Netherlands. Palmas Island, now Miangas Island, is a part of modern Indonesia. |
Trans-Karakoram Tract, including Shaksgam Valley
| {{PAK}} | 1947 | 1963 | Pakistan relinquished its claim to the People's Republic of China; India did not. |
Sinai Peninsula
| {{flag|Israel}} | 1967 | 1982 | During the Six-Day War Israel claimed Sinai. It was returned in 1982 under the terms of the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. |
Taba
| {{flag|Israel}} | 1979 | 1989 | When Egypt and Israel were negotiating the exact position of the border in preparation for the 1979 peace treaty, Israel claimed that Taba had been on the Ottoman side of a border agreed between the Ottomans and British Egypt in 1906 and had, therefore, been in error in its two previous agreements. Although most of Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982, Taba was the last portion to be returned. The issue was submitted to an international commission. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypt's favour, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt in 1989. |
Phú Quốc island and Thổ Chu Islands area
| {{VIE}} | 1939 | 1982 | In 1939, Governor General of Indochina, Jules Brévié, sent a letter to the Governor of Cochinchina about “the issue of the islands in the Gulf of Siam whose is a matter of controversy between Cambodia and Cochin-China”. In this letter,“for administrative purposes”, he drew a line which defined the border between the waters of Cambodia and Cochin-China: all the islands north of the line are under Cambodian sovereignty, all the islands south of the line are ruled by Cochin-China. As a result, Phú Quốc was under Cochinchina administration. In 1949, Cochin-China became part of Vietnam, an Associated State in the French Union within the Indochinese Federation. After the Geneva Accords, in 1954, its sovereignty was handed over to the State of Vietnam. In 1964, then Head of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk proposed to the Vietnamese a map aimed at settling the issue. Cambodia offered to accept the colonial “Brévié Line” as the maritime boundary, thus abandoning its claim. That position of Cambodia was confirmed by maps given to the mission sent by the UN Security Council after the Chantrea incidents. On June 8, 1967, the Vietnamese issued a declaration that accepted the “Brévié Line” as the maritime border. On May 1, 1975, a squad of Khmer Rouge soldiers raided and took Phú Quốc, but Vietnam soon recaptured it. This was to be the first of a series of incursions and counter-incursions that would escalate to the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in 1979. Cambodia dropped its claims to Phú Quốc in 1976.Hanns Jürgen Buchholz. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2KZEEuaS6RIC&dq=phu+quoc&pg=PA41 Law of the Sea Zones in the Pacific Ocean]. Retrieved 2015-10-09. p.41 But the bone of contention involving the island between the governments of the two countries continued, as both have a historical claim to it and the surrounding waters. A July 1982 agreement between Vietnam and the People's Republic of Kampuchea ostensibly settled the dispute; however, it is still the object of irredentist sentiments. |
Turtle Islands
| {{flagicon|Philippines|1919}} Philippine Islands | 1930 | 1930 | Dispute between the United States and the United Kingdom over the Turtle Islands located south of the Philippines, which was then American territory. In a 1930 treaty the United Kingdom acknowledged American sovereignty over the islands and was agreed upon that the British would remain administering the island until the United States express interest to take over control over the islands after a one-year notice. When the Philippines gained full independence from the United States in 1946, the Philippines invoked the treaty and the British turned over the islands to the Philippines in 1947. |
West Bank, including East Jerusalem
| {{flag|Israel}} | 1967 | 1988 | During the Six-Day War, Israel conquered these territories from Jordan. Jordan later renounced the claim on the territory, supporting instead its inclusion in a future Palestine. |
Ligitan and Sipadan
| {{MYS}} |1969 |2002 | The 2002 International Court of Justice ruling awarded both islands to Malaysia, but left unsettled the maritime boundary immediately southwest and west of the islands between Malaysia and Indonesia. |
Hawar Islands
| {{flag|Qatar}} | 1971 | 2001 | Formerly disputed between Qatar and Bahrain, it was settled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. In the June 2001 decision, Bahrain kept the Hawar Islands and Qit'at Jaradah but dropped claims to Janan Island and Zubarah on mainland Qatar, while Qatar retained significant maritime areas and their resources. The agreement has furthered the goal of definitively establishing the border with Saudi Arabia and Saudi-led mediation efforts continue. |
Batek Island
| {{IDN}} | 2002 | 2004 | Ceded by Timor-Leste to Indonesia in August 2004. |
{{convert|11000|mi2}} of territory in Xinjiang
| {{PAK}} | 1947 | 1963 | Pakistan relinquished its claim to the People's Republic of China. |
Aksai Chin
| {{PAK}} | 1947 | 1963 | Pakistan relinquished its claim to the People's Republic of China; India did not. |
Demchok sector
| {{PAK}} | 1947 | 1963 | Claimed as part of the princely state of Kashmir. |
Chumar
| {{PAK}} | 1947 | 1963 | Claimed as part of the princely state of Kashmir. Pakistan relinquished its claim to the People's Republic of China; India did not. |
{{convert|3700|mi2}} of territory in Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Siachen Glacier
| {{PAK}} | 1960 | 1963 | The People's Republic of China relinquished its claim to Pakistan. India and the Republic of China did not. |
Saudi Arabia–Yemen border demarcation dispute
| {{SAU}} | 1934 | 2000 | Settled by the Treaty of Jeddah (2000). |
Limbang District
|{{Flag|Malaysia}} | 1967 | 2010 |Limbang District was part of Brunei until it was forced to cede it to the Raj of Sarawak in 1890. Since then Brunei is divided territorially into two. It was claimed by Brunei in 1967 in order to reconnect the country. It forms the main part of the Brunei–Malaysia border#Disputes. Malaysia claimed to settle the issue in 2009, however this was disputed by Brunei. Malaysia in 2010 ceded two hydrocarbon concession blocks to Brunei in exchange for Brunei dropping claims to Limbang. |
Hanish Islands
|{{Flag|Yemen}} | 1995 | 1999 |In December 1995, Eritrea entered into a dispute with Yemen over claims to the Hanish Islands and fishing rights in the Red Sea. This dispute was resolved in 1999 when the islands were awarded to Yemen through international arbitration, and the Eritreans complied with the verdict. |
Shatt al-Arab
|{{IRN}} |1936 |1988 |Settled by the 1975 Algiers Agreement. Reneged on by Iraq in 1980, but re-agreed to in 1988. |
Makati–Taguig boundary dispute
|Taguig |1983 |2023 |Taguig claimed more than {{convert|7.29|km2}} of land in Fort Bonifacio, an area formerly administered by Makati. On August 5, 2013, the Court of Appeals Sixth Division ruled that Makati had legal jurisdiction over the area, thus invalidating Taguig's claim.{{cite web |date=6 August 2013 |title=CA rules Makati City, not Taguig, has jurisdiction over Fort Bonifacio |url=http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/459431/ca-rules-makati-city-not-taguig-has-jurisdiction-over-fort-bonifacio |access-date=5 October 2014}} Taguig did not abandon its claims and petitioned the Court of Appeals to have the decision revoked.{{cite web |date=6 August 2013 |title=Taguig to appeal CA decision on Fort Boni dispute |url=http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/320790/news/nation/taguig-to-appeal-ca-decision-on-fort-boni-dispute |access-date=5 October 2014 |website=GMA News Online}} Pateros also claimed the area and filed a petition before the Taguig Regional Court Branch 271 in 2012 concerning its claim. Pateros reiterated its claims in 2013 following the decision of the Court of Appeals awarding Makati jurisdiction over the area.{{cite web |date=7 August 2013 |title=Pateros: Fort Bonifacio is ours |url=http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/08/07/13/pateros-fort-bonifacio-ours |access-date=22 October 2014 |website=ABS-CBN News}}{{cite web |date=7 August 2013 |title=Pateros joins the fray: 'Fort Bonifacio is ours' |url=http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/460115/pateros-joins-the-fray-fort-bonifacio-is-ours |access-date=5 October 2014}} The Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of Taguig in 2023,{{Cite web |last=Cruz |first=James |date=2023-06-29 |title=Supreme Court denies Makati's motion to file 2nd appeal on territory dispute vs Taguig |url=https://www.rappler.com/nation/metro-manila/supreme-court-denies-makati-motion-file-appeal-territory-dispute-taguig/ |access-date=2023-11-04 |website=RAPPLER |language=en-US}} and the ruling began to be implemented in that year's elections. |
Certain islands in the Naf River, St. Martin's Island
|{{BGD}} |1971 |2019 |The dispute dates back to the independence of Bangladesh. The two countries agreed on Bangladeshi sovereignty over St. Martin's Island in 1974, but a maritime dispute continued. Marked by sporadic border violence, including the Tatmadaw shooting Bangladeshi fishermen, the maritime dispute was solved in 2012 by an ITLOS ruling. Then, in 2018, a diplomatic incident occurred when the Burmese government released an official map depicting St. Martin's Island as Burmese territory.{{Cite web |title=Myanmar's Claim to St. Martin's Island Irks Bangladesh |url=https://thewire.in/south-asia/myanmar-bangladesh-saint-martins-island}} Myanmar subsequently acknowledged Bangladeshi sovereignty over St. Martin's Island and finally removed it from its official map by 2019.{{Cite web |date=2019-09-05 |title=Country Map Administrative |url=https://documents.themimu.info/browse/villagemaps/fileagreement.php?url=https://documents.themimu.info/downloads/swl68LO/Country_Map_Administrative_MIMU1509v01_05Sep19_A4_MMR.pdf |access-date=2023-11-18 |website=Myanmar Information Management Unit}} |
Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border
|1951 |2023 |The dispute between the two Indian states spanned 1,200 points{{Cite web |date=13 August 2021 |title=Assam-Arunachal's boundary dispute |url=https://arunachal24.in/assam-arunachals-boundary-dispute-at-1200-places-himanta-biswa-sarma/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |language=en-US}} and contained 123 villages, dating as far back as a 1951 single-member commission land transfer recommendation when Arunachal Pradesh was the North-East Frontier Agency. In April 2023, both states signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly demarcate their border. By September 2023, 115 villages went to Arunachal Pradesh and 8 villages went to Assam.{{Cite news |last= |date=2023-09-06 |title=MoU on Assam-Arunachal border issue implemented in right earnest: Khandu |url=https://assamtribune.com/north-east/mou-on-assam-arunachal-border-issue-implemented-in-right-earnest-khandu-1493430 |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=The Assam Tribune |language=en}} |
Kuwait-Saudi Arabia border, Qaruh, and Umm al Maradim
|{{KWT}} |1913 |2019 |The dispute dates as far back as when the United Kingdom and Ottoman Empire signed the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, defining the border in two phases: a formal boundary as well as a British "sphere of influence". This agreement was never ratified due to major complications: the Ottoman Empire had no de facto control over any of the area, because the Sheikhdom of Kuwait was effectively a British protectorate, Najd Sanjak was occupied by the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa, and the signatories proceeded to fight against each other in World War I, which ended in the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. From 1919-1920, the Saudis attempted to annex Kuwait in the Kuwait-Najd War, which ended in the Uqair Protocol of 1922. The Protocol defined a "neutral zone" between the Sheikhdom of Kuwait and Sultanate of Nejd. The State of Kuwait inherited the United Kingdom's territorial claim when it gained independence in 1961. In 1965, a separation line was drawn halfway through the neutral zone; Qaruh and Umm al Maradim are north of the line. Kuwait interpreted as the de jure border but Saudi Arabia recognized it only as de facto, leaving the sovereignty of the northern half of the "neutral zone" in question. In 1990, Ba'athist Iraq invaded Kuwait; the Republic of Kuwait was declared and annexed into Iraq, causing the Gulf War. Kuwaiti and Coalition forces recaptured Qaruh and Umm al-Maradim in one of the first battles of the war, which ended in total Iraqi defeat and withdrawal of Iraq's territorial claim. Finally, in 2019, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding in which Saudi Arabia recognized the separation line as a permanent international border.{{Cite web |last=Al-Saif |first=Bader |date=2021-03-31 |title=Along the Kuwaiti-Saudi Border, Stability Is Built on Flexibility |url=https://carnegie-mec.org/2021/03/31/along-kuwaiti-saudi-border-stability-is-built-on-flexibility-pub-84131 |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center}} |
= Europe =
class="wikitable sortable" |
Territory
! Former claimants ! Dispute started ! Dispute settled ! Notes |
---|
Village of Aibga and surrounding area{{cite news|title=Moscow, Sokhumi Dispute Village in 'Border Talks'|url=http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23306|newspaper=Civil.ge|date=2 April 2011|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180421094423/http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23306|archive-date = 21 April 2018}}{{cite news|title=Russia e Abkhazia litigano per i confini|url=http://www.agoravox.it/Russia-e-Abkhazia-litigano-per-i.html|newspaper=AgoraVox Italia|date=23 May 2011|first = Luca|last = Troiano|language= it}}
| {{flag|Abkhazia|name=Republic of Abkhazia}} |2011 |2011 | During the existence of the Soviet Union, the village of Aibga was divided into two; the southern part belonged to Georgia and the northern part to Russia. In March 2011 Russia laid claim to the southern area of Aibga. After the Abkhaz side proved that the southern part of Aibga belonged to the Georgian SSR, the claim on the village was dropped by Russia.{{cite web |url=http://css.ge/files/books/papers/Nika_Samkharadze,Georgian_State_Border_%E2%80%93_Past_and_Present,__Sept.__2012_eng.pdf |title=Georgian State Border – Past and Present |publisher=Center for Social Sciences |date=August 2012 |access-date=24 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140823163741/http://css.ge/files/books/papers/Nika_Samkharadze,Georgian_State_Border_%E2%80%93_Past_and_Present,__Sept.__2012_eng.pdf |archive-date=23 August 2014 |url-status=dead }} |
Åland
| {{flag|Finland}} | 1917 | 1921 | Sweden and Finland argued over the control of the Åland Islands (located between Sweden and Finland). The Åland movement (Ålandsrörelsen) wanted Åland to reunite with its old mother country Sweden (Finland and Åland belonged to Sweden before 1809). The movement gathered signatures from over 7000 inhabitants of legal age at the Åland Islands in 1917 (that was about 96% of the population) - they all supported a union with Sweden. When Finland became independent (December 6, 1917) Sweden wanted a plebiscite about the future of the Åland Islands to solve the problem. Finland refused and argued that the Åland Islands had always been a natural part of Finland - even when Finland was under Swedish rule. Sweden appealed to the League of Nations referring to the right of the population to determine which country they should belong to. After studying the matter closely the League of Nations decided Finland should retain sovereignty over the province but that the Åland Islands should be made an autonomous territory. The Swedish Prime Minister said he didn't accept the verdict but he also said that Sweden was not going to use military force to get their claims.{{cite web|url = http://www.macgregorishistory.com/english/ib/League%20of%20Nations/lon1920.html|website = MacGregor is History |title = Disputes in the League of Nations in the 1920's|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120616144657/http://www.macgregorishistory.com/english/ib/League%20of%20Nations/lon1920.html|archive-date = 16 June 2012}} |
Baltic Sea
| {{flag|Poland}} | 1978 | 2018 | Poland has decided to cede to Denmark 80 percent of the disputed territory{{Cite news|title=Poland and Denmark sign agreement on maritime boundary in the Baltic Sea|url=https://www.msp-platform.eu/events/poland-and-denmark-sign-agreement-maritime-boundary-baltic-sea |date=28 November 2018}} |
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
| {{flag|Soviet Union}} | 1940 | 1989 | On 13 November 1989, Nicolae Ceauşescu demanded the annulment of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, pursuant to which Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were occupied by the Soviet Union, and the return of these territories to Romania. This demand was officially adopted as party policy by 14th Congress of the Communist Party of Romania, held later the same month. Ceauşescu was overthrown in the Romanian Revolution in December 1989 before the claim could be seriously pursued, and the post-revolutionary National Salvation Front abandoned it. |
Bulgaria-Turkey riverine border
| {{Flag|Bulgaria}} | 1990 | 1990 | The border at the Rezovo's mouth was the subject of a minor territorial dispute between Bulgaria and Turkey, which was settled in the 1990s. As a result of an agreement between the two countries of 6 May 1992 (ratified by Bulgaria in 1998), Bulgaria received a small land area of several square kilometres in the Rezovo Bay in return for water area in the continental shelf. |
Graham Island
| {{flag|Two Sicilies}} | 1831 | 1831 |A dispute between the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the British Crown Colony of Malta, the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Spain occurred after the volcanic island appeared in 1831. The British were the first to claim the island as part of Malta, and they were followed by the Two Sicilies and France, while Spain expressed their ambitions to control the island. The island disappeared by December 1831 and the dispute stopped. A Sicilian flag was lowered over the now submerged island in 2000 to show Italian claims to the area. It is no longer disputed by Britain, France, Spain or Malta. |
Lampedusa
| {{flag|Kingdom of Sicily}} | 1800 | 1814 |The island was controlled by British troops as a de facto part of the Malta Protectorate from 1800 onwards. After a British royal commission was sent there in 1812, the new Governor of Malta Sir Thomas Maitland withdrew British troops and the island was returned to Sicily. |
Tenedos/Bozcaada
| {{TUR}} | 1920 | 1923 | On 11 August 1920, following World War I, the Treaty of Sèvres with the defeated Ottoman Empire granted the island to Greece, who joined the war in Allies' side in May 1917. The new Turkish Government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, based in Ankara, which was not party to the treaty, overthrew the Ottoman government, which signed but did not ratify the treaty. After the Turkish War of Independence ended in Greek defeat in Anatolia, and the fall of David Lloyd George and his Middle Eastern policies after the Carlton Club meeting, the western powers agreed to the Treaty of Lausanne with the new Turkish Republic, in 1923. This treaty made Tenedos/Bozcaada and Imbros part of Turkey, and it guaranteed a special autonomous administrative status there to accommodate the Greeks. |
Island of Ireland
| {{flag|United Kingdom}} | 1919 | 1922 | On 21 January 1919, the 69 Sinn Féin MPs elected in the 1918 United Kingdom general election in Ireland to the British House of Commons refused to take their seats in the British Parliament and instead assembled in a separate parliament in Ireland, which proclaimed Irish independence under a revolutionary Irish Republic, leading to the Irish War of Independence. In 1920, following the collapse of the British administration, the revolutionary republic established control over 21 of Ireland's 32 counties,M.E. Collins, Ireland, p. 252. with only urban areas and what would later become Northern Ireland remaining under British control; however, by the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, which ended the war of independence, the revolutionary republic was replaced by the Irish Free State—a semi-independent Dominion of the British Empire albeit separate from the United Kingdom itself—on 6 December 1922. A day later, Northern Ireland opted out of inclusion in the Irish Free State and returned to the UK, thus de facto effecting the partition of Ireland into two regions, established de jure by the British Parliament's Government of Ireland Act 1920 on 23 December 1920. On 1 July 1937, the Irish Free State adopted a new constitution, by which it declared itself a fully independent state simply called "Ireland"; this Constitution also declared a claim to Northern Ireland until 1998. |
Northern Ireland
| {{flag|United Kingdom}} | 1937 | 1998 | Formerly disputed between Ireland and the United Kingdom since the Adoption of the Constitution of Ireland on 29 December 1937, it was settled by the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, when Ireland amended its constitution to withdraw its constitutional claim. Both countries acknowledged that the territory can join the rest of Ireland if separate referendums in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland approve of the former's cession. |
Pytalovo (Abrene in Latvia)
| {{flag|Russia}} | 1991 | 2007 | Pytalovo was a village in the parish of Vyshgorogok, the westernmost part of the Ostrov uyezd, Governorate of Pskov that was ceded from RSFSR to Latvia under the Treaty of Riga (1920) along with parishes of Kachanovo and Tonkovo. In 1940 Latvian Republic was annexed by the Soviet Union and Latvian SSR was established, encompassing the above named territories until 1944 when they were transferred to the district of Ostrov, Pskov Oblast, RSFSR.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bestpravo.com/sssr/eh-praktika/o4w.htm|title=Указ Президиума ВС СССР от 23.08.1944 Об образовании Псковской области в составе РСФСР (Decree of the Supreme Council of USSR on establishing the Pskov Oblast within the RSFSR)|website=BestPravo|access-date=2018-12-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229033553/http://www.bestpravo.com/sssr/eh-praktika/o4w.htm|archive-date=2016-12-29|url-status=dead}} Since 1991 reestablished Republic of Latvia disputed Russian jurisdiction over the region until the border treaty with Russia was signed in 2007.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/policy/bilateral-relations/relation-profile/relations-between-latvia-and-russia/the-republic-of-latvia-and-the-russian-federation-treaty-on-the-state-border-of-latvia-and-russia |website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Latvia|title = The Republic of Latvia and the Russian Federation Treaty On the State Border of Latvia and Russia|date= 4 April 2007}} |
Black Sea and Snake Island
| {{flag|Ukraine}} | 2004 | 2009 | In 2004 Romania filed a case to International Court of Justice claiming that Ukraine's Snake Island was an uninhabitable rock under UNCLOS standards and thus not eligible to carry influence over determination of the maritime boundary between the two states. During the Soviet times the island was a small naval station with a lighthouse. In 2007 the Ukrainian parliament approved an establishment of a small settlement there, Bile, as part of the Odesa Oblast. The maritime boundary issue was settled by the International Court of Justice in 2009, awarding Romania 80% of the disputed area. |
Vilnius Region
| {{flag|Lithuania}} | 1920 | 1945 | During the Polish–Soviet War Polish armies entered the Vilnius Region which was at the time part of the Soviet Lithuanian–Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1920, Polish General Lucjan Żeligowski led a coup and established the Republic of Central Lithuania which was annexed to the Second Polish Republic after the war as part of the historic Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and due to ethnic Poles in the region. Lithuania moved its capital to Kaunas while never giving up its claim to Vilnius. The Lithuanians found support in the Soviet Union for their cause signing the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty in 1939. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland, the region came under Soviet control and became part of the Lithuanian SSR after World War II which was followed by a large number of ethnic Poles being deported two times. Following the fall of the Soviet Union and Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania the Vilnius region became part of Lithuania again. |
Passetto di Borgo in the vicinity of the Vatican City
| {{ITA}} | 1870 | 1991 |Pope John Paul II recognized the sovereignty of Italy over the Passetto on May 18, 1991.{{cite web|url=http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/madrid/abc/1991/08/06/051.html|title=ABC (Madrid) - 06/08/1991, p. 51 - ABC.es Hemeroteca|website=hemeroteca.abc.es|access-date=30 June 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/7th-september-1990/1/papal-passage-ceded|title=Catholic Herald|website=CatholicHerald.co.uk|access-date=5 October 2014}} |
Jan Mayen
| {{flag|Norway}} | 1979 | 1980 | Norway and Iceland argued over sovereignty of Jan Mayen from the period of 1979 to 1980. The island had been annexed by Norway in 1926, and was home of a Norwegian meteorological station. During a delegation to Iceland in April 1980, Icelandic foreign minister Ólafur Jóhannesson cited statements from the late 1920s to point out how Iceland never officially recognised Norway’s annexation of the island. He also indicated that, historically, the island had much closer ties to Iceland than it did to Norway. The Icelandic government never intended to seriously dispute the sovereignty of the island, but used these points in order to gain a bargaining position over the waters surrounding the island. On the 28th of May 1980, Iceland and Norway signed a treaty which gave Iceland most of what it wanted, including a recognition of the 200 nautical mile Exclusive economic zone around Iceland.{{cite web|url= http://gudnith.is/efni/jan_mayen_dispute_24_jan_2013|title= The Jan Mayen dispute between Iceland and Norway, 1979-1981|website=Guðni Th. Jóhannesson|date=24 January 2013}} |
Disputes over territorial waters
Notes
{{reflist|group="note"}}
See also
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Demilitarized zone
- Dependent territory
- Frozen conflict
- List of administrative divisions by country
- List of border conflicts
- List of countries and territories by land and maritime borders
- List of internal boundary disputes in the Philippines
- List of sovereign states
- Lists of active separatist movements
- Neutral territory
- Territorial claims in the Arctic
- Territorial disputes in the Persian Gulf
{{div col end}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category-inline}}
- {{cite web|title=Government Statistics: Transnational Issues: Disputes: International (most recent) by country |publisher=Nation Master|url=http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/gov_tra_iss_dis_int-government-transnational-issues-disputes-international}}
{{Territorial disputes in Western Asia}}
{{Territorial disputes in East, South, and Southeast Asia}}
{{Territorial disputes in Europe}}
{{Authority control}}