FIELD LISTING : : D I S P U T E S - I N T E R N A T I O N A L : : D I S P U T E S - I N T E R N A T I O N A L

This entry includes a wide variety of situations that range from traditional bi lateral boundarydisputes to unilateral claims of one sort or another. Information regarding disputes overinternational terrestrial and maritime boundaries has been reviewed by the US Department ofState. References to other situations involving borders or frontiers may also be included, such asresource disputes, geopolitical questions, or irredentist issues; however, inclusion does notnecessari ly constitute official acceptance or recognition by the US Government.

COUNTRY DISPUTES - INTERNATIONAL

Afghanistan Afghan, Coalition, and Pakistan mil itary meet periodically toclarify the al ignment of the boundary on the ground and onmaps; Afghan and Iranian commissioners have discussed boundarymonument densification and resurvey; Iran protests Afghanistan'srestricting flow of dammed Helmand River tributaries duringdrought; Pakistan has sent troops across and built fences alongsome remote tribal areas of its treaty-defined Durand Line borderwith Afghanistan which serve as bases for foreign terrorists andother i l legal activities; Russia remains concerned about thesmuggling of poppy derivatives from Afghanistan through CentralAsian countries

Albania none

Algeria Algeria and many other states reject Moroccan administration ofWestern Sahara; the Polisario Front, exi led in Algeria, representsthe Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic; Algeria's border withMorocco remains an irritant to bilateral relations, each nationaccusing the other of harboring mil itants and arms smuggling;dormant disputes include Libyan claims of about 32,000 sq kmstil l reflected on its maps of southeastern Algeria and theNational Liberation Front's (FLN) assertions of a claim to ChiracPastures in southeastern Morocco

American Samoa Tokelau included American Samoa's Swains Island (Olohega) in its2006 draft independence constitution

Andorra none

Angola Democratic Republic of Congo accuses Angola of shiftingmonuments

Anguilla none

Antarctica the Antarctic Treaty freezes, and most states do not recognize,the land and maritime territorial claims made by Argentina,Austral ia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UnitedKingdom (some overlapping) for three-fourths of the continent;the US and Russia reserve the right to make claims; no formalclaims have been made in the sector between 90 degrees westand 150 degrees west; the International Whaling Commissioncreated a sanctuary around the entire continent to deter catchesby countries claiming to conduct scientific whaling; Austral ia hasestablished a similar preserve in the waters around its territorialclaim

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Antigua and Barbuda none

Arctic Ocean Canada and the United States dispute how to divide the BeaufortSea and the status of the Northwest Passage but continue towork cooperatively to survey the Arctic continental shelf;Denmark (Greenland) and Norway have made submissions to theCommission on the Limits of the Continental shelf (CLCS) andRussia is collecting additional data to augment its 2001 CLCSsubmission; record summer melting of sea ice in the Arctic hasrenewed interest in maritime shipping lanes and sea floorexploration; Norway and Russia signed a comprehensive maritimeboundary agreement in 2010

Argentina Argentina continues to assert its claims to the UK-administeredFalkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia, and the SouthSandwich Islands in its constitution, forcibly occupying theFalklands in 1982, but in 1995 agreed to no longer seeksettlement by force; UK continues to reject Argentine requestsfor sovereignty talks; territorial claim in Antarctica partial lyoverlaps UK and Chilean claims; uncontested dispute betweenBrazil and Uruguay over Brazil iera/Brasil iera Island in theQuarai/Cuareim River leaves the tripoint with Argentina inquestion; in 2010, the ICJ ruled in favor of Uruguay's operationof two paper mil ls on the Uruguay River, which forms the borderwith Argentina; the two countries formed a joint pollutionmonitoring regime; the joint boundary commission, established byChile and Argentina in 2001 has yet to map and demarcate thedelimited boundary in the inhospitable Andean Southern Ice Field(Campo de Hielo Sur); contraband smuggling, human trafficking,and i l legal narcotic trafficking are problems in the porous areasof the border with Bolivia

Armenia the dispute over the break-away Nagorno-Karabakh region andthe Armenian mil itary occupation of surrounding lands inAzerbaijan remains the primary focus of regional instabil ity;residents have evacuated the former Soviet-era small ethnicenclaves in Armenia and Azerbaijan; Turkish authorities havecomplained that blasting from quarries in Armenia might bedamaging the medieval ruins of Ani, on the other side of theArpacay valley; in 2009, Swiss mediators facil itated an accordreestablishing diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey, butneither side has ratif ied the agreement and the rapprochementeffort has faltered; local border forces struggle to control theil legal transit of goods and people across the porous,undemarcated Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian borders;ethnic Armenian groups in the Javakheti region of Georgia seekgreater autonomy from the Georgian Government

Aruba none

Ashmore and CartierIslands

Austral ia has closed parts of the Ashmore and Cartier reserve toIndonesian traditional fishing; Indonesian groups challengeAustral ia's claim to Ashmore Reef

Atlantic Ocean some maritime disputes (see l ittoral states)

Australia

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In 2007, Austral ia and Timor-Leste agreed to a 50-yeardevelopment zone and revenue sharing arrangement and deferreda maritime boundary; Austral ia asserts land and maritime claimsto Antarctica; Austral ia's 2004 submission to Commission on theLimits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) extends its continentalmargins over 3.37 mil l ion square ki lometers, expanding itsseabed roughly 30 percent beyond its claimed exclusiveeconomic zone; al l borders between Indonesia and Austral ia havebeen agreed upon bilateral ly, but a 1997 treaty that would settlethe last of their maritime and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)boundary has yet to be ratif ied by Indonesia's legislature;Indonesian groups challenge Austral ia's claim to Ashmore Reef;Austral ia closed parts of the Ashmore and Cartier reserve toIndonesian traditional fishing

Austria none

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratif ied the Caspian seabeddelimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continuesto insist on a one-fifth sl ice of the sea; the dispute over thebreak-away Nagorno-Karabakh region and the Armenian mil itaryoccupation of surrounding lands in Azerbaijan remains theprimary focus of regional instabil ity; residents have evacuatedthe former Soviet-era small ethnic enclaves in Armenia andAzerbaijan; local border forces struggle to control the i l legaltransit of goods and people across the porous, undemarcatedArmenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian borders; bi lateral talkscontinue with Turkmenistan on dividing the seabed and contestedoilf ields in the middle of the Caspian

Bahamas, The disagrees with the US on the al ignment of the northern axis of apotential maritime boundary

Bahrain none

Bangladesh Bangladesh referred its maritime boundary claims with Burma andIndia to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea; PrimeMinister Singh's September 2011 visit to Bangladesh resulted inthe signing of a Protocol to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreementbetween India and Bangladesh, which had called for thesettlement of longstanding boundary disputes over undemarcatedareas and the exchange of territorial enclaves, but which hadnever been implemented; Bangladesh struggles to accommodate29,000 Rohingya, Burmese Muslim minority from Arakan State,l iving as refugees in Cox's Bazar; Burmese border authorities areconstructing a 200 km (124 mi) wire fence designed to deteri l legal cross-border transit and tensions from the mil itary build-up along border

Barbados Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago abide by the Apri l 2006Permanent Court of Arbitration decision delimiting a maritimeboundary and l imiting catches of flying fish in Trinidad andTobago's exclusive economic zone; joins other Caribbean statesto counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains humanhabitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of theSea, which permits Venezuela to extend its Economic ExclusionZone/continental shelf over a large portion of the eastern

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Caribbean Sea

Belarus boundary demarcated with Latvia and Lithuania; Poland seeksenhanced demarcation and security along this Schengen hardborder with financial assistance from the EU

Belgium none

Belize Guatemala persists in its territorial claim to half of Belize, butagrees to the Line of Adjacency to keep Guatemalan squattersout of Belize's forested interior; Belize and Mexico are working tosolve minor border demarcation discrepancies arising frominaccuracies in the 1898 border treaty

Benin talks continue between Benin and Togo on funding the Adjralahydroelectric dam on the Mona River; Benin retains a borderdispute with Burkina Faso around the town of Koualou; locationof Benin-Niger-Nigeria tripoint is unresolved

Bermuda none

Bhutan lacking any treaty describing the boundary, Bhutan and Chinacontinue negotiations to establish a common boundary al ignmentto resolve territorial disputes arising from substantialcartographic discrepancies, the largest of which l ie in Bhutan'snorthwest and along the Chumbi salient

Bolivia Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore theAtacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile offersinstead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access throughChile for Bolivian natural gas; contraband smuggling, humantrafficking, and i l legal narcotic trafficking are problems in theporous areas of the border with Argentina

Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbia delimited about half of the boundary with Bosnia andHerzegovina, but sections along the Drina River remain in dispute

Botswana none

Bouvet Island none

Brazil uncontested boundary dispute between Brazil and Uruguay overBrazil iera/Brasil iera Island in the Quarai/Cuareim River leaves thetripoint with Argentina in question; smuggling of firearms andnarcotics continues to be an issue along the Uruguay-Brazilborder; Colombian-organized i l legal narcotics and paramil itaryactivities penetrate Brazil's border region with Venezuela

British Indian OceanTerritory

Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Islands; Negotiationsbetween 1971 and 1982 resulted in the establishment of a trustfund by the British Government as compensation for thedisplaced islanders, known as Chagossians, who were evictedbetween 1967-73; in 2001, the former inhabitants of thearchipelago were granted UK citizenship and the right of return;in 2006 and 2007, British court rul ings invalidated theimmigration policies contained in the 2004 BIOT ConstitutionOrder that had excluded the islanders from the archipelago; in

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2008 a House of Lords' decision overturned lower court rul ings,once again denying the right of return to Chagossians; inaddition, the United Kingdom created the world's largest marineprotection area around the Chagos islands prohibiting theextraction of any natural resources therein

British Virgin Islands none

Brunei per Letters of Exchange signed in 2009, Malaysia in 2010 cededtwo hydrocarbon concession blocks to Brunei in exchange forBrunei's sultan dropping claims to the Limbang corridor, whichdivides Brunei; nonetheless, Brunei claims a maritime boundaryextending as far as a median with Vietnam, thus asserting animplicit claim to Louisa Reef

Bulgaria none

Burkina Faso adding to i l l icit cross-border activities, Burkina Faso has issuesconcerning unresolved boundary al ignments with its neighbors;demarcation is currently underway with Mali, the dispute withNiger was referred to the ICJ in 2010, and a dispute over severalvi l lages with Benin persists; Benin retains a border dispute withBurkina Faso around the town of Koualou

Burma over half of Burma's population consists of diverse ethnic groupswho have substantial numbers of kin in neighboring countries; theNaf river on the border with Bangladesh serves as a smugglingand i l legal transit route; Bangladesh struggles to accommodate29,000 Rohingya, Burmese Muslim minority from Arakan State,l iving as refugees in Cox's Bazar; Burmese border authorities areconstructing a 200 km (124 mi) wire fence designed to deteri l legal cross-border transit and tensions from the mil itary build-up along border with Bangladesh in 2010; Bangladesh referred itsmaritime boundary claims with Burma and India to theInternational Tribunal on the Law of the Sea; Burmese forcesattempting to dig in to the largely autonomous Shan State torout local mil it ias tied to the drug trade, prompts local residentsto periodically flee into neighboring Yunnan Province in China;fencing along the India-Burma international border at Manipur'sMoreh town is in progress to check i l legal drug trafficking andmovement of mil itants; 140,000 mostly Karen refugees fleeingcivi l strife, political upheaval and economic stagnation in Burmalive in remote camps in Thailand near the border

Burundi Burundi and Rwanda dispute two sq km (0.8 sq mi) of Sabanerwa,a farmed area in the Rukurazi Valley where the Akanyaru/KanyaruRiver shifted its course southward after heavy rains in 1965;cross-border confl icts persist among Tutsi, Hutu, other ethnicgroups, associated political rebels, armed gangs, and variousgovernment forces in the Great Lakes region

Cambodia Cambodia is concerned about Laos' extensive upstream damconstruction; Cambodia and Thailand dispute sections ofboundary; in 2011 Thailand and Cambodia resorted to arms in thedispute over the location of the boundary on the precipicesurmounted by Preah Vihear temple ruins, awarded to Cambodiaby ICJ decision in 1962 and part of a planned UN World Heritage

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site; Cambodia accuses Vietnam of a wide variety of i l l icit cross-border activities; progress on a joint development area withVietnam is hampered by an unresolved dispute over sovereigntyof offshore islands

Cameroon Joint Border Commission with Nigeria reviewed 2002 ICJ rul ing onthe entire boundary and bilaterally resolved differences, includingJune 2006 Greentree Agreement that immediately cededsovereignty of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon with a ful lphase-out of Nigerian control and patriation of residents in 2008;Cameroon and Nigeria agreed on maritime delimitation in March2008; sovereignty dispute between Equatorial Guinea andCameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River; onlyNigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission'sadmonition to ratify the delimitation treaty, which also includesthe Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Canada managed maritime boundary disputes with the US at DixonEntrance, Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Gulf ofMaine including the disputed Machias Seal Island and North Rock;Canada and the United States dispute how to divide the BeaufortSea and the status of the Northwest Passage but continue towork cooperatively to survey the Arctic continental shelf; USworks closely with Canada to intensify security measures formonitoring and controll ing legal and i l legal movement of people,transport, and commodities across the international border;sovereignty dispute with Denmark over Hans Island in theKennedy Channel between Ellesmere Island and Greenland;commencing the collection of technical evidence for submissionto the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf insupport of claims for continental shelf beyond 200 nautical milesfrom its declared baselines in the Arctic, as stipulated in Article76, paragraph 8, of the United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea

Cape Verde none

Cayman Islands none

Central African Republic periodic skirmishes over water and grazing rights among relatedpastoral populations along the border with southern Sudanpersist

Chad since 2003, ad hoc armed mil it ia groups and the Sudanesemil itary have driven hundreds of thousands of Darfur residentsinto Chad; Chad wishes to be a helpful mediator in resolving theDarfur confl ict, and in 2010 established a joint border monitoringforce with Sudan, which has helped to reduce cross-borderbanditry and violence; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heededthe Lake Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitationtreaty, which also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeriaboundaries

Chile Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore theAtacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile has offeredinstead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access throughChile to Bolivian natural gas; Chile rejects Peru's unilateral

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legislation to change its latitudinal maritime boundary with Chileto an equidistance l ine with a southwestern axis favoring Peru; inOctober 2007, Peru took its maritime complaint with Chile to theICJ; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic Territory)partial ly overlaps Argentine and British claims; the joint boundarycommission, established by Chile and Argentina in 2001, has yetto map and demarcate the delimited boundary in the inhospitableAndean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur)

China continuing talks and confidence-building measures work towardreducing tensions over Kashmir that nonetheless remainsmil itarized with portions under the de facto administration ofChina (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan(Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); India does not recognizePakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964; Chinaand India continue their security and foreign policy dialoguestarted in 2005 related to the dispute over most of their rugged,mil itarized boundary, regional nuclear proliferation, and othermatters; China claims most of India's Arunachal Pradesh to thebase of the Himalayas; lacking any treaty describing theboundary, Bhutan and China continue negotiations to establish acommon boundary al ignment to resolve territorial disputesarising from substantial cartographic discrepancies, the largestof which l ie in Bhutan's northwest and along the Chumbi sal ient;Burmese forces attempting to dig in to the largely autonomousShan State to rout local mil it ias tied to the drug trade, promptslocal residents to periodically flee into neighboring YunnanProvince in China; Chinese maps show an international boundarysymbol off the coasts of the l ittoral states of the South ChinaSeas, where China has interrupted Vietnamese hydrocarbonexploration; China asserts sovereignty over Scarborough Reefalong with the Phil ippines and Taiwan, and over the SpratlyIslands together with Malaysia, the Phil ippines, Taiwan, Vietnam,and Brunei; the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties inthe South China Sea eased tensions in the Spratlys but is not thelegally binding code of conduct sought by some parties; Vietnamand China continue to expand construction of faci l it ies in theSpratlys and in March 2005, the national oi l companies of China,the Phil ippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord on marineseismic activities in the Spratly Islands; China occupies some ofthe Paracel Islands also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; Chinaand Taiwan continue to reject both Japan's claims to theuninhabited islands of Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan'sunilateral ly declared equidistance l ine in the East China Sea, thesite of intensive hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation;certain islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers are in dispute withNorth Korea; North Korea and China seek to stem il legalmigration to China by North Koreans, fleeing privations andoppression, by building a fence along portions of the border andimprisoning North Koreans deported by China; China and Russiahave demarcated the once disputed islands at the Amur andUssuri confluence and in the Argun River in accordance with their2004 Agreement; China and Tajikistan have begun demarcatingthe revised boundary agreed to in the delimitation of 2002; thedecade-long demarcation of the China-Vietnam land boundary wascompleted in 2009; citing environmental, cultural, and socialconcerns, China has reconsidered construction of 13 dams on the

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Salween River, but energy-starved Burma, with backing fromThailand, remains intent on building five hydro-electric damsdownstream despite regional and international protests; Chineseand Hong Kong authorities met in March 2008 to resolveownership and use of lands recovered in Shenzhen Riverchannelization, including 96-hectare Lok Ma Chau Loop; HongKong developing plans to reduce 2,000 out of 2,800 hectares ofits restricted Closed Area by 2010

Christmas Island none

Clipperton Island none

Cocos (Keeling) Islands none

Colombia in December 2007, ICJ al located San Andres, Providencia, andSanta Catalina islands to Colombia under 1928 Treaty but did notrule on 82 degrees W meridian as maritime boundary withNicaragua; managed dispute with Venezuela over maritimeboundary and Venezuelan-administered Los Monjes Islands nearthe Gulf of Venezuela; Colombian-organized i l legal narcotics,guerri l la, and paramil itary activities penetrate al l neighboringborders and have caused Colombian citizens to flee mostly intoneighboring countries; Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Jamaica,and the US assert various claims to Bajo Nuevo and Serranil laBank

Comoros claims French-administered Mayotte and challenges France's andMadagascar's claims to Banc du Geyser, a drying reef in theMozambique Channel; in May 2008, African Union forces werecalled in to assist the Comoros mil itary recapture Anjouan Islandfrom rebels who seized it in 2001

Congo, Democratic Republicof the

heads of the Great Lakes states and UN pledged in 2004 toabate tribal, rebel, and mil it ia fighting in the region, includingnortheast Congo, where the UN Organization Mission in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), organized in 1999,maintains over 16,500 uniformed peacekeepers; members ofUganda's Lords Resistance Army forces continue to seek refugein Congo's Garamba National Park as peace talks with the Ugandagovernment evolve; the location of the boundary in the broadCongo River with the Republic of the Congo is indefinite except inthe Pool Malebo/Stanley Pool area; Uganda and DRC disputeRukwanzi Island in Lake Albert and other areas on the SemlikiRiver with hydrocarbon potential; boundary commission continuesdiscussions over Congolese-administered triangle of land on theright bank of the Lunkinda River claimed by Zambia near the DRCvil lage of Pweto; DRC accuses Angola of shifting monuments

Congo, Republic of the the location of the boundary in the broad Congo River with theDemocratic Republic of the Congo is undefined except in the PoolMalebo/Stanley Pool area

Cook Islands none

Coral Sea Islands none

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Costa Rica the ICJ had given Costa Rica unti l January 2008 to reply andNicaragua unti l July 2008 to rejoin before rendering its decisionon the navigation, security, and commercial r ights of Costa Ricanvessels on the Rio San Juan over which Nicaragua retainssovereignty

Cote d'Ivoire despite the presence of over 9,000 UN forces (UNOCI) in Coted'Ivoire since 2004, ethnic confl ict sti l l leaves displacedhundreds of thousands of Ivoirians in and out of the country aswell as driven out migrants from neighboring states who workedin Ivorian cocoa plantations; the March 2007 peace deal betweenIvorian rebels and the government brought significant numbers ofrebels out of hiding in neighboring states

Croatia dispute remains with Bosnia and Herzegovina over several smallsections of the boundary related to maritime access that hindersratif ication of the 1999 border agreement; the Croatia-Slovenialand and maritime boundary agreement, which would have cededmost of Pirin Bay and maritime access to Slovenia and severalvi l lages to Croatia, remains unratif ied and in dispute; Sloveniaalso protests Croatia's 2003 claim to an exclusive economic zonein the Adriatic; as a European Union peripheral state, Sloveniaimposed a hard border Schengen regime with non-member Croatiain December 2007

Cuba US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased to US and onlymutual agreement or US abandonment of the facil ity canterminate the lease

Cyprus hosti l it ies in 1974 divided the island into two de factoautonomous entities, the internationally recognized CypriotGovernment and a Turkish-Cypriot community (north Cyprus); the1,000-strong UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) hasserved in Cyprus since 1964 and maintains the buffer zonebetween north and south; on 1 May 2004, Cyprus entered theEuropean Union sti l l divided, with the EU's body of legislation andstandards (acquis communitaire) suspended in the north; Turkeyprotests Cypriot Government creating hydrocarbon blocks andmaritime boundary with Lebanon in March 2007

Czech Republic while threats of international legal action never material ized in2007, 915,220 Austrians, with the support of the popularFreedom Party, signed a petition in January 2008, demandingthat Austria block the Czech Republic's accession to the EUunless Prague closes its controversial Soviet-style nuclear plantin Temelin, bordering Austria

Denmark Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that theFaroe Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm; Faroesecontinue to study proposals for ful l independence; sovereigntydispute with Canada over Hans Island in the Kennedy Channelbetween Ellesmere Island and Greenland; Denmark (Greenland)and Norway have made submissions to the Commission on theLimits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) and Russia is collectingadditional data to augment its 2001 CLCS submission

Djibouti Djibouti maintains economic ties and border accords with

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"Somali land" leadership while maintaining some political ties tovarious factions in Somalia; Kuwait is chief investor in the 2008restoration and upgrade of the Ethiopian-Djibouti rai l l ink; in2008, Eritrean troops moved across the border on Ras Doumerapeninsula and occupied Doumera Island with undefinedsovereignty in the Red Sea

Dominica Dominica is the only Caribbean state to challenge Venezuela'ssovereignty claim over Aves Island and joins the other islandnations in challenging whether the feature sustains humanhabitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of theSea (UNCLOS), which permits Venezuela to extend its ExclusiveEconomic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf claims over a largeportion of the eastern Caribbean Sea

Dominican Republic Haitian migrants cross the porous border into the DominicanRepublic to find work; i l legal migrants from the DominicanRepublic cross the Mona Passage each year to Puerto Rico to findbetter work

Ecuador organized i l legal narcotics operations in Colombia penetrateacross Ecuador's shared border, which thousands of Colombiansalso cross to escape the violence in their home country

Egypt Sudan claims but Egypt de facto administers security andeconomic development of Halaib region north of the 22nd parallelboundary; Egypt no longer shows its administration of the BirTawil trapezoid in Sudan on its maps; Gazan breaches in thesecurity wall with Egypt in January 2008 highlight difficulties inmonitoring the Sinai border; Saudi Arabia claims Egyptian-administered islands of Tiran and Sanafir

El Salvador International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the delimitation of"bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Hondurasboundary, in 1992, with final agreement by the parties in 2006after an Organization of American States survey and a further ICJruling in 2003; the 1992 ICJ rul ing advised a tripartite resolutionto a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca advocatingHonduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claimtiny Conejo Island, not identified in the ICJ decision, off Hondurasin the Gulf of Fonseca

Equatorial Guinea in 2002, ICJ ruled on an equidistance settlement of Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in the Gulf ofGuinea, but a dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroonover an island at the mouth of the Ntem River and impreciselydefined maritime coordinates in the ICJ decision delayed finaldelimitation; UN urged Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolvethe sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane and lesserislands and to create a maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay

Eritrea Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by 2002 Ethiopia-EritreaBoundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision but, neitherparty responded to the revised l ine detailed in the November2006 EEBC Demarcation Statement; Sudan accuses Eritrea ofsupporting eastern Sudanese rebel groups; in 2008 Eritrean

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troops moved across the border on Ras Doumera peninsula andoccupied Doumera Island with undefined sovereignty in the RedSea

Estonia Russia and Estonia in May 2005 signed a technical borderagreement, but Russia in June 2005 recalled its signature afterthe Estonian parl iament added to its domestic ratif ication act ahistorical preamble referencing the Soviet occupation andEstonia's pre-war borders under the 1920 Treaty of Tartu; Russiacontends that the preamble al lows Estonia to make territorialclaims on Russia in the future, while Estonian officials deny thatthe preamble has any legal impact on the treaty text; Russiademands better treatment of the Russian-speaking population inEstonia; as a member state that forms part of the EU's externalborder, Estonia implements strict Schengen border rules withRussia

Ethiopia Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-EthiopiaBoundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but neitherparty responded to the revised l ine detailed in the November2006 EEBC Demarcation Statement; the undemarcated formerBritish administrative l ine has l ittle meaning as a politicalseparation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden and southernSomalia's Oromo region; Ethiopian forces invaded southernSomalia and routed Islamist Courts from Mogadishu in January2007; "Somali land" secessionists provide port facil it ies inBerbera and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia; civi l unrest ineastern Sudan has hampered efforts to demarcate the porousboundary with Ethiopia

European Union as a political union, the EU has no border disputes withneighboring countries, but Estonia has no land boundaryagreements with Russia, Slovenia disputes its land and maritimeboundaries with Croatia, and Spain has territorial and maritimedisputes with Morocco and with the UK over Gibraltar; the EU hasset up a Schengen area - consisting of 22 EU member states thathave signed the convention implementing the Schengenagreements or "acquis" (1985 and 1990) on the free movementof persons and the harmonization of border controls in Europe;these agreements became incorporated into EU law with theimplementation of the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam on 1 May1999; in addition, non-EU states Iceland and Norway (as part ofthe Nordic Union) have been included in the Schengen area since1996 (full members in 2001), Switzerland since 2008, andLiechtenstein since 2011 bringing the total current membershipto 26; the UK (since 2000) and Ireland (since 2002) take part inonly some aspects of the Schengen area, especial ly with respectto police and criminal matters; nine of the 12 new member statesthat joined the EU since 2004 joined Schengen on 21 December2007; of the three remaining EU states, Romania and Bulgariamay join by late 2012, while Cyprus' entry is held up by theongoing Cyprus dispute

Falkland Islands (IslasMalvinas)

Argentina, which claims the islands in its constitution and brieflyoccupied them by force in 1982, agreed in 1995 to no longerseek settlement by force; UK continues to reject Argentinerequests for sovereignty talks

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Faroe Islands because anticipated offshore hydrocarbon resources have notbeen realized, earl ier Faroese proposals for ful l independencehave been deferred; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland disputeDenmark's claim that the Faroe Islands' continental shelf extendsbeyond 200 nm

Fiji none

Finland various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia andother areas ceded to the Soviet Union, but the FinnishGovernment asserts no territorial demands

France Madagascar claims the French territories of Bassas da India,Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, and Juan de Nova Island; Comorosclaims Mayotte; Mauritius claims Tromelin Island; territorialdispute between Suriname and the French overseas departmentof French Guiana; France asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica(Adelie Land); France and Vanuatu claim Matthew and HunterIslands, east of New Caledonia

French Polynesia none

French Southern andAntarctic Lands

French claim to "Adelie Land" in Antarctica is not recognized bythe US B a s s a s d a I n d i a , E u r o p a I s l a n d , G l o r i o s o I s l a n d s , J u a n d eB a s s a s d a I n d i a , E u r o p a I s l a n d , G l o r i o s o I s l a n d s , J u a n d eN o v a I s l a n d ( I l e s E p a r s e s ) :N o v a I s l a n d ( I l e s E p a r s e s ) : claimed by Madagascar; thevegetated drying cays of Banc du Geyser, which were claimed byMadagascar in 1976, also fal l within the EEZ claims of theComoros and France (Glorioso Islands) T r o m e l i n I s l a n d ( I l e s E p a r s e s ) :T r o m e l i n I s l a n d ( I l e s E p a r s e s ) : claimed by Mauritius

Gabon UN urges Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolve the sovereigntydispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane Island and lesser islands andto establish a maritime boundary in hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay

Gambia, The attempts to stem refugees, cross-border raids, arms smuggling,and other i l legal activities by separatists from southern Senegal'sCasamance region, as well as from confl icts in other west Africanstates

Gaza Strip the current status of Gaza Strip is subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement with permanent status to bedetermined through further negotiation; Israel removed settlersand mil itary personnel from Gaza Strip in August 2005

Georgia Russia's mil itary support and subsequent recognition of Abkhaziaand South Ossetia independence in 2008 continue to sourrelations with Georgia

Germany none

Ghana Ghana struggles to accommodate returning nationals who workedin the cocoa plantations and escaped fighting in Cote d'Ivoire

Gibraltar in 2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendumto reject any "shared sovereignty" arrangement; the government

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of Gibraltar insists on equal participation in talks between the UKand Spain; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant Gibraltar evengreater autonomy

Greece Greece and Turkey continue discussions to resolve their complexmaritime, air, territorial, and boundary disputes in the AegeanSea; Greece rejects the use of the name Macedonia or Republic ofMacedonia; the mass migration of unemployed Albanians sti l lremains a problem for developed countries, chiefly Greece andItaly

Greenland managed dispute between Canada and Denmark over Hans Islandin the Kennedy Channel between Canada's El lesmere Island andGreenland; Denmark (Greenland) and Norway have madesubmissions to the Commission on the Limits of the Continentalshelf (CLCS) and Russia is collecting additional data to augmentits 2001 CLCS submission

Grenada none

Guam none

Guatemala annual ministerial meetings under the Organization of AmericanStates-initiated Agreement on the Framework for Negotiationsand Confidence Building Measures continue to addressGuatemalan land and maritime claims in Belize and the CaribbeanSea; Guatemala persists in its territorial claim to half of Belize,but agrees to Line of Adjacency to keep Guatemalan squattersout of Belize's forested interior; Mexico must deal withthousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other CentralAmericans who cross the porous border looking for work inMexico and the United States

Guernsey none

Guinea confl icts among rebel groups, warlords, and youth gangs inneighboring states have spil led over into Guinea resulting indomestic instabil ity; Sierra Leone considers Guinea's definition ofthe flood plain l imits to define the left bank boundary of theMakona and Moa rivers excessive and protests Guinea's continuedoccupation of these lands, including the hamlet of Yenga,occupied since 1998

Guinea-Bissau in 2006, political instabil ity within Senegal's Casamance regionresulted in thousands of Senegalese refugees, cross-border raids,and arms smuggling into Guinea-Bissau

Guyana all of the area west of the Essequibo River is claimed byVenezuela preventing any discussion of a maritime boundary;Guyana has expressed its intention to join Barbados in assertingclaims before UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)that Trinidad and Tobago's maritime boundary with Venezuelaextends into their waters; Suriname claims a triangle of landbetween the New and Kutari/Koetari r ivers in a historic disputeover the headwaters of the Courantyne; Guyana seeks arbitrationunder provisions of the UNCLOS to resolve the long-standingdispute with Suriname over the axis of the territorial sea

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boundary in potential ly oi l-r ich waters

Haiti since 2004, about 8,000 peacekeepers from the UN Stabil izationMission in Haiti maintain civi l order in Haiti; despite efforts tocontrol i l legal migration, Haitians cross into the DominicanRepublic and sail to neighboring countries; Haiti claims US-administered Navassa Island

Heard Island and McDonaldIslands none

Holy See (Vatican City) none

Honduras International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the delimitation of"bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Hondurasborder in 1992 with final settlement by the parties in 2006 afteran Organization of American States survey and a further ICJruling in 2003; the 1992 ICJ rul ing advised a tripartite resolutionto a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca with considerationof Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claimtiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the ICJ rul ing, off Hondurasin the Gulf of Fonseca; Honduras claims the Belizean-administeredSapodil la Cays off the coast of Belize in its constitution, butagreed to a joint ecological park around the cays shouldGuatemala consent to a maritime corridor in the Caribbean underthe OAS-sponsored 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum

Hong Kong none

Howland Island none

Hungary bilateral government, legal, technical and economic workinggroup negotiations continue in 2006 with Slovakia overHungary's fai lure to complete its portion of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project along the Danube; as amember state that forms part of the EU's external border,Hungary has implemented the strict Schengen border rules

Iceland Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that theFaroe Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm; theEuropean Free Trade Association Surveil lance Authority fi led asuit against Iceland, claiming the country violated the EuropeanEconomic Area agreement in fai l ing to pay minimumcompensation to Icesave depositors

India since China and India launched a security and foreign policydialogue in 2005, consolidated discussions related to the disputeover most of their rugged, mil itarized boundary, regional nuclearproliferation, Indian claims that China transferred missi les toPakistan, and other matters continue; Kashmir remains the siteof the world's largest and most mil itarized territorial disputewith portions under the de facto administration of China (AksaiChin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmirand Northern Areas); India and Pakistan resumed bilateraldialogue in February 2011 after a two-year hiatus, havemaintained the 2003 cease-fire in Kashmir, and continue to havedisputes over water sharing of the Indus River and its tributaries;

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UN Mil itary Observer Group in India and Pakistan has maintained asmall group of peacekeepers since 1949; India does notrecognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in1964; to defuse tensions and prepare for discussions on amaritime boundary, India and Pakistan seek technical resolutionof the disputed boundary in Sir Creek estuary at the mouth ofthe Rann of Kutch in the Arabian Sea; Pakistani maps continue toshow its Junagadh claim in Indian Gujarat State; Prime MinisterSingh's September 2011 visit to Bangladesh resulted in thesigning of a Protocol to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreementbetween India and Bangladesh, which had called for thesettlement of longstanding boundary disputes over undemarcatedareas and the exchange of territorial enclaves, but which hadnever been implemented; Bangladesh referred its maritimeboundary claims with Burma and India to the InternationalTribunal on the Law of the Sea; Joint Border Committee withNepal continues to examine contested boundary sections,including the 400 square ki lometer dispute over the source ofthe Kalapani River; India maintains a strict border regime to keepout Maoist insurgents and control i l legal cross-border activitiesfrom Nepal

Indian Ocean some maritime disputes (see l ittoral states)

Indonesia Indonesia has a stated foreign policy objective of establishingstable fixed land and maritime boundaries with al l of itsneighbors; three stretches of land borders with Timor-Leste haveyet to be delimited, two of which are in the Oecussi exclave area,and no maritime or Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundarieshave been established between the countries; many refugeesfrom Timor-Leste who left in 2003 sti l l reside in Indonesia andrefuse repatriation; al l borders between Indonesia and Austral iahave been agreed upon bilateral ly, but a 1997 treaty that wouldsettle the last of their maritime and EEZ boundary has yet to beratified by Indonesia's legislature; Indonesian groups challengeAustral ia's claim to Ashmore Reef; Austral ia has closed parts ofthe Ashmore and Cartier Reserve to Indonesian traditional fishingand placed restrictions on certain catches ; land and maritimenegotiations with Malaysia are ongoing, and disputed areasinclude the controversial Tanjung Datu and Camar Wulan borderarea in Borneo and the maritime boundary in the Ambalat oi lblock in the Celebes Sea; Indonesia and Singapore continue towork on final izing their 1973 maritime boundary agreement bydefining unresolved areas north of Indonesia's Batam Island;Indonesian secessionists, squatters, and i l legal migrants createrepatriation problems for Papua New Guinea; maritimedelimitation talks continue with Palau; EEZ negotiations withVietnam are ongoing, and the two countries in Fall 2011 agreedto work together to reduce i l legal fishing along their maritimeboundary

Iran Iran protests Afghanistan's l imiting flow of dammed HelmandRiver tributaries during drought; Iraq's lack of a maritimeboundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond themouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf; Iran and UAEdispute Tunb Islands and Abu Musa Island, which are occupied byIran; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratif ied Caspian seabed

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delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continuesto insist on a one-fifth sl ice of the sea; Afghan and Iraniancommissioners have discussed boundary monument densificationand resurvey

Iraq approximately two mil l ion Iraqis have fled the confl ict in Iraq,with the majority taking refuge in Syria and Jordan, and lessernumbers to Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, and Turkey; Iraq's lack of amaritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyondthe mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf; Turkey hasexpressed concern over the autonomous status of Kurds in Iraq

Ireland Ireland, Iceland, and the UK dispute Denmark's claim that theFaroe Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm

Isle of Man none

Israel West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current statussubject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanentstatus to be determined through further negotiation; Israelcontinues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier alongparts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrewits settlers and mil itary from the Gaza Strip and from foursettlements in the West Bank in August 2005; Golan Heights isIsraeli-occupied (Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of GolanHeights); since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UNTruce Supervision Organization headquartered in Jerusalemmonitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, preventisolated incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnelin the region

Italy Italy's long coastl ine and developed economy entices tens ofthousands of i l legal immigrants from southeastern Europe andnorthern Africa

Jamaica none

Jan Mayen none

Japan the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri,and Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the"Northern Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kuri lIslands," occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administeredby Russia and claimed by Japan, remains the primary stickingpoint to signing a peace treaty formally ending World War I Ihosti l it ies; Japan and South Korea claim Liancourt Rocks (Take-shima/Tok-do) occupied by South Korea since 1954; China andTaiwan dispute both Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands ofthe Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declaredexclusive economic zone in the East China Sea, the site ofintensive hydrocarbon prospecting

Jarvis Island none

Jersey none

Johnston Atoll none

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Jordan 2004 Agreement settles border dispute with Syria pendingdemarcation

Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan has yet to ratify the 2001 boundary delimitation withKazakhstan; field demarcation of the boundaries commenced withUzbekistan in 2004 and with Turkmenistan in 2005; ongoingdemarcation with Russia began in 2007; demarcation with Chinawas completed in 2002; creation of a seabed boundary withTurkmenistan in the Caspian Sea remains under discussion;Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratif ied Caspian seabeddelimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continuesto insist on a one-fifth sl ice of the sea

Kenya Kenya served as an important mediator in brokering Sudan'snorth-south separation in February 2005; Kenya provides shelterto almost a quarter mil l ion refugees, including Ugandans who fleeacross the border periodical ly to seek protection from Lord'sResistance Army rebels; Kenya works hard to prevent the clanand mil it ia fighting in Somalia from spreading across the border,which has long been open to nomadic pastoral ists; the boundarythat separates Kenya's and Sudan's sovereignty is unclear in the"Ilemi Triangle," which Kenya has administered since colonialtimes

Kingman Reef none

Kiribati none

Korea, North risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousandsof North Koreans cross into China to escape famine, economicprivation, and political oppression; North Korea and China disputethe sovereignty of certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers;Mil itary Demarcation Line within the 4-km-wide Demil itarizedZone has separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodicincidents in the Yellow Sea with South Korea which claims theNorthern Limiting Line as a maritime boundary; North Koreasupports South Korea in rejecting Japan's claim to LiancourtRocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)

Korea, South Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km-wide Demil itarizedZone has separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodicincidents with North Korea in the Yellow Sea over the NorthernLimit Line, which South Korea claims as a maritime boundary;South Korea and Japan claim Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima), occupied by South Korea since 1954

Kosovo Serbia with several other states protest the US and other states'recognition of Kosovo's declaration of its status as a sovereignand independent state in February 2008; ethnic Serbianmunicipalities along Kosovo's northern border challenge finalstatus of Kosovo-Serbia boundary; several thousand NATO-ledKosovo Force peacekeepers under United Nations InterimAdministration Mission in Kosovo authority continue to keep thepeace within Kosovo between the ethnic Albanian majority andthe Serb minority in Kosovo; Kosovo and Macedonia completeddemarcation of their boundary in September 2008

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Kuwait Kuwait and Saudi Arabia continue negotiating a joint maritimeboundary with Iran; no maritime boundary exists with Iraq in thePersian Gulf

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan has yet to ratify the 2001 boundary delimitation withKazakhstan; disputes in Isfara Valley delay completion ofdelimitation with Tajikistan; delimitation of 130 km of borderwith Uzbekistan is hampered by serious disputes over enclavesand other areas

Laos southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveil lance tocheck the spread of avian flu; talks continue on completion ofdemarcation with Thailand but disputes remain over islands in theMekong River; concern among Mekong River Commission membersthat China's construction of dams on the Mekong River and itstributaries wil l affect water levels; Cambodia and Vietnam areconcerned about Laos' extensive upstream dam construction

Latvia Russia demands better Latvian treatment of ethnic Russians inLatvia; boundary demarcated with Latvia and Lithuania; theLatvian parl iament has not ratif ied its 1998 maritime boundarytreaty with Lithuania, primari ly due to concerns over oilexploration rights; as a member state that forms part of the EU'sexternal border, Latvia has implemented the strict Schengenborder rules with Russia

Lebanon lacking a treaty or other documentation describing the boundary,portions of the Lebanon-Syria boundary are unclear with severalsections in dispute; since 2000, Lebanon has claimed Shab'aFarms area in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights; the roughly2,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been in place since1978

Lesotho none

Liberia although civi l unrest continues to abate with the assistance of18,000 UN Mission in Liberia peacekeepers, as of January 2007,Liberian refugees sti l l remain in Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, SierraLeone, and Ghana; Liberia, in turn, shelters refugees fleeingturmoil in Cote d'Ivoire; despite the presence of over 9,000 UNforces in Cote d'Ivoire since 2004, ethnic confl ict continues tospread into neighboring states who can no longer send theirmigrant workers to Ivorian cocoa plantations; UN sanctions banLiberia from exporting diamonds and timber

Libya dormant disputes include Libyan claims of about 32,000 sq kmstil l reflected on its maps of southeastern Algeria and the FLN'sassertions of a claim to Chirac Pastures in southeastern Morocco;various Chadian rebels from the Aozou region reside in southernLibya

Liechtenstein none

Lithuania Lithuania and Russia committed to demarcating their boundary in2006 in accordance with the land and maritime treaty ratif ied byRussia in May 2003 and by Lithuania in 1999; Lithuania operatesa simplif ied transit regime for Russian nationals traveling from

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the Kaliningrad coastal exclave into Russia, while sti l l conforming,as a EU member state having an external border with a non-EUmember, to strict Schengen border rules; boundary demarcatedwith Latvia and Lithuania; as of January 2007, grounddemarcation of the boundary with Belarus was complete andmapped with final ratif ication documents in preparation

Luxembourg none

Macau none

Macedonia Kosovo and Macedonia completed demarcation of their boundaryin September 2008; Greece continues to reject the use of thename Macedonia or Republic of Macedonia

Madagascar claims Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, and Juande Nova Island (al l administered by France); the vegetated dryingcays of Banc du Geyser, which were claimed by Madagascar in1976, also fal l within the EEZ claims of the Comoros and France(Glorioso Islands, part of the French Southern and AntarcticLands)

Malawi disputes with Tanzania over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (LakeMalawi) and the meandering Songwe River remain dormant

Malaysia while the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in theSouth China Sea" has eased tensions over the Spratly Islands, itis not the legally binding "code of conduct" sought by someparties; Malaysia was not party to the March 2005 joint accordamong the national oi l companies of China, the Phil ippines, andVietnam on conducting marine seismic activities in the SpratlyIslands; disputes continue over deliveries of fresh water toSingapore, Singapore's land reclamation, bridge construction, andmaritime boundaries in the Johor and Singapore Straits; in 2008,ICJ awarded sovereignty of Pedra Branca (Pulau BatuPuteh/Horsburgh Island) to Singapore, and Middle Rocks toMalaysia, but did not rule on maritime regimes, boundaries, ordisposition of South Ledge; land and maritime negotiations withIndonesia are ongoing, and disputed areas include thecontroversial Tanjung Datu and Camar Wulan border area inBorneo and the maritime boundary in the Ambalat oi l block in theCelebes Sea; separatist violence in Thailand's predominantlyMuslim southern provinces prompts measures to close andmonitor border with Malaysia to stem terrorist activities;Phil ippines retains a dormant claim to Malaysia's Sabah State innorthern Borneo; Per Letters of Exchange signed in 2009,Malaysia in 2010 ceded two hydrocarbon concession blocks toBrunei in exchange for Brunei's sultan dropping claims to theLimbang corridor, which divides Brunei; piracy remains a problemin the Malacca Strait

Maldives none

Mali demarcation is underway with Burkina Faso

Malta none

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Marshall Islands claims US territory of Wake Island

Mauritania Mauritanian claims to Western Sahara remain dormant

Mauritius Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Islands; claims French-administered Tromelin Island

Mexico abundant rainfal l in recent years along much of the Mexico-USborder region has ameliorated periodically strained water-sharingarrangements; the US has intensified security measures tomonitor and control legal and i l legal personnel, transport, andcommodities across its border with Mexico; Mexico must dealwith thousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other CentralAmericans who cross the porous border looking for work inMexico and the United States; Belize and Mexico are working tosolve minor border demarcation discrepancies arising frominaccuracies in the 1898 border treaty

Micronesia, FederatedStates of none

Midway Islands none

Moldova Moldova and Ukraine operate joint customs posts to monitor thetransit of people and commodities through Moldova's break-awayTransnistria region, which remains under the auspices of anOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe-mandatedpeacekeeping mission comprised of Moldovan, Transnistrian,Russian, and Ukrainian troops

Monaco none

Mongolia none

Montenegro none

Montserrat none

Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara whose sovereigntyremains unresolved; Morocco protests Spain's control over thecoastal enclaves of Ceuta, Meli l la, and Penon de Velez de laGomera, the islands of Penon de Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas,and surrounding waters; both countries claim Isla Pereji l (LeilaIsland); discussions have not progressed on a comprehensivemaritime delimitation, setting l imits on resource exploration andrefugee interdiction, since Morocco's 2002 rejection of Spain'sunilateral designation of a median l ine from the Canary Islands;Morocco serves as one of the primary launching areas of i l legalmigration into Spain from North Africa; Algeria's border withMorocco remains an irritant to bilateral relations, each nationaccusing the other of harboring mil itants and arms smuggling;the National Liberation Front's assertions of a claim to ChiracPastures in southeastern Morocco is a dormant dispute

Mozambique none

Namibia concerns from international experts and local populations over

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the Okavango Delta ecology in Botswana and human displacementscuttled Namibian plans to construct a hydroelectric dam onPopa Falls along the Angola-Namibia border; managed disputewith South Africa over the location of the boundary in theOrange River; Namibia has supported, and in 2004 Zimbabwedropped objections to, plans between Botswana and Zambia tobuild a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de factorecognizing a short, but not clearly delimited, Botswana-Zambiaboundary in the river

Nauru none

Navassa Island claimed by Haiti, source of subsistence fishing

Nepal joint border commission continues to work on contested sectionsof boundary with India, including the 400 square ki lometerdispute over the source of the Kalapani River; India has instituteda stricter border regime to restrict transit of Maoist insurgentsand i l legal cross-border activities; approximately 106,000Bhutanese Lhotshampas (Hindus) have been confined in refugeecamps in southeastern Nepal since 1990

Netherlands none

New Caledonia Matthew and Hunter Islands east of New Caledonia claimed byFrance and Vanuatu

New Zealand asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Ross Dependency)

Nicaragua the 1992 ICJ rul ing for El Salvador and Honduras advised atripartite resolution to establish a maritime boundary in the Gulfof Fonseca, which considers Honduran access to the Pacific; legaldispute over navigational rights of San Juan River on border withCosta Rica

Niger Libya claims about 25,000 sq km in a currently dormant disputein the Tommo region; location of Benin-Niger-Nigeria tripoint isunresolved; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the LakeChad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treatythat also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries;the dispute with Burkina Faso was referred to the ICJ in 2010

Nigeria Joint Border Commission with Cameroon reviewed 2002 ICJ rul ingon the entire boundary and bilateral ly resolved differences,including June 2006 Greentree Agreement that immediatelycedes sovereignty of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon with aphase-out of Nigerian control within two years while resolvingpatriation issues; the ICJ ruled on an equidistance settlement ofCameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in theGulf of Guinea, but imprecisely defined coordinates in the ICJdecision and a sovereignty dispute between Equatorial Guineaand Cameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River al lcontribute to the delay in implementation; only Nigeria andCameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonitionto ratify the delimitation treaty which also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries; location of Benin-Niger-Nigeria tripoint is unresolved

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Niue none

Norfolk Island none

Northern Mariana Islands none

Norway Norway asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Queen Maud Landand its continental shelf); Denmark (Greenland) and Norway havemade submissions to the Commission on the Limits of theContinental shelf (CLCS) and Russia is collecting additional datato augment its 2001 CLCS submission; Norway and Russia signeda comprehensive maritime boundary agreement in 2010

Oman boundary agreement reportedly signed and ratif ied with UAE in2003 for entire border, including Oman's Musandam Peninsulaand Al Madhah exclave, but details of the al ignment have notbeen made public

Pacific Ocean some maritime disputes (see l ittoral states)

Pakistan various talks and confidence-building measures cautiously havebegun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, particularly since theOctober 2005 earthquake in the region; Kashmir neverthelessremains the site of the world's largest and most mil itarizedterritorial dispute with portions under the de facto administrationof China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan(Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); UN Mil itary Observer Groupin India and Pakistan has maintained a small group ofpeacekeepers since 1949; India does not recognize Pakistan'sceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964; India andPakistan have maintained their 2004 cease-fire in Kashmir andinitiated discussions on defusing the armed standoff in theSiachen glacier region; Pakistan protests India's fencing thehighly mil itarized Line of Control and construction of the BagliharDam on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir, which is part ofthe larger dispute on water sharing of the Indus River and itstributaries; to defuse tensions and prepare for discussions on amaritime boundary, India and Pakistan seek technical resolutionof the disputed boundary in Sir Creek estuary at the mouth ofthe Rann of Kutch in the Arabian Sea; Pakistani maps continue toshow the Junagadh claim in India's Gujarat State; by 2005,Pakistan, with UN assistance, repatriated 2.3 mil l ion Afghanrefugees leaving sl ightly more than a mil l ion, many of whomremain at their own choosing; Pakistan has sent troops acrossand built fences along some remote tribal areas of its treaty-defined Durand Line border with Afghanistan, which serve asbases for foreign terrorists and other i l legal activities; Afghan,Coalition, and Pakistan mil itary meet periodically to clarify thealignment of the boundary on the ground and on maps

Palau maritime delineation negotiations continue with Phil ippines,Indonesia

Palmyra Atoll none

Panama organized i l legal narcotics operations in Colombia operate within

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the remote border region with Panama

Papua New Guinea rel ies on assistance from Austral ia to keep out i l legal cross-border activities from primari ly Indonesia, including goodssmuggling, i l legal narcotics trafficking, and squatters andsecessionists

Paracel Islands occupied by China, also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam

Paraguay unruly region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguayborders is locus of money laundering, smuggling, arms and i l legalnarcotics trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations

Peru Chile and Ecuador rejected Peru's November 2005 unilaterallegislation to shift the axis of their joint treaty-defined maritimeboundaries along the parallels of latitude to equidistance l ineswhich favor Peru; organized i l legal narcotics operations inColombia have penetrated Peru's shared border; Peru rejectsBolivia's claim to restore maritime access through a sovereigncorridor through Chile along the Peruvian border

Philippines Phil ippines claims sovereignty over Scarborough Reef (alsoclaimed by China together with Taiwan) and over certain of theSpratly Islands, known locally as the Kalayaan (Freedom) Islands,also claimed by China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam; the 2002"Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea,"has eased tensions in the Spratly Islands but fal ls short of alegally binding "code of conduct" desired by several of thedisputants; in March 2005, the national oi l companies of China,the Phil ippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conductmarine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands; Phil ippines retainsa dormant claim to Malaysia's Sabah State in northern Borneobased on the Sultanate of Sulu's granting the Phil ippinesGovernment power of attorney to pursue a sovereignty claim onhis behalf; maritime delimitation negotiations continue with Palau

Pitcairn Islands none

Poland as a member state that forms part of the EU's external border,Poland has implemented the strict Schengen border rules torestrict i l legal immigration and trade along its eastern borderswith Belarus and Ukraine

Portugal Portugal does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over theterritory of Olivenza based on a difference of interpretation ofthe 1815 Congress of Vienna and the 1801 Treaty of Badajoz

Puerto Rico increasing numbers of i l legal migrants from the DominicanRepublic cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico each year lookingfor work

Qatar none

Romania the ICJ ruled largely in favor of Romania in its dispute submittedin 2004 over Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy/Serpilor (Snake)Island and Black Sea maritime boundary delimitation; Romaniaopposes Ukraine's reopening of a navigation canal from the

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Danube border through Ukraine to the Black Sea

Russia Russia remains concerned about the smuggling of poppyderivatives from Afghanistan through Central Asian countries;China and Russia have demarcated the once disputed islands atthe Amur and Ussuri confluence and in the Argun River inaccordance with the 2004 Agreement, ending their centuries-long border disputes; the sovereignty dispute over the islands ofEtorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known inJapan as the "Northern Territories" and in Russia as the"Southern Kuri ls," occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, nowadministered by Russia, and claimed by Japan, remains theprimary sticking point to signing a peace treaty formally endingWorld War I I hosti l it ies; Russia's mil itary support and subsequentrecognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia independence in 2008continue to sour relations with Georgia; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,and Russia ratif ied Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based onequidistance, while Iran continues to insist on a one-fifth sl ice ofthe sea; Norway and Russia signed a comprehensive maritimeboundary agreement in 2010; various groups in Finland advocaterestoration of Karelia (Kareliya) and other areas ceded to theSoviet Union following World War I I but the Finnish Governmentasserts no territorial demands; Russia and Estonia signed atechnical border agreement in May 2005, but Russia recalled itssignature in June 2005 after the Estonian parl iament added to itsdomestic ratif ication act a historical preamble referencing theSoviet occupation and Estonia's pre-war borders under the 1920Treaty of Tartu; Russia contends that the preamble al lowsEstonia to make territorial claims on Russia in the future, whileEstonian officials deny that the preamble has any legal impact onthe treaty text; Russia demands better treatment of the Russian-speaking population in Estonia and Latvia; Lithuania and Russiacommitted to demarcating their boundary in 2006 in accordancewith the land and maritime treaty ratif ied by Russia in May 2003and by Lithuania in 1999; Lithuania operates a simplif ied transitregime for Russian nationals traveling from the Kaliningradcoastal exclave into Russia, while sti l l conforming, as an EUmember state with an EU external border, where strict Schengenborder rules apply; preparations for the demarcation delimitationof land boundary with Ukraine have commenced; the dispute overthe boundary between Russia and Ukraine through the KerchStrait and Sea of Azov remains unresolved despite a December2003 framework agreement and on-going expert-leveldiscussions; Kazakhstan and Russia boundary delimitation wasratified on November 2005 and field demarcation shouldcommence in 2007; Russian Duma has not yet ratif ied 1990Bering Sea Maritime Boundary Agreement with the US; Denmark(Greenland) and Norway have made submissions to theCommission on the Limits of the Continental shelf (CLCS) andRussia is collecting additional data to augment its 2001 CLCSsubmission

Rwanda Burundi and Rwanda dispute two sq km (0.8 sq mi) of Sabanerwa,a farmed area in the Rukurazi Valley where the Akanyaru/KanyaruRiver shifted its course southward after heavy rains in 1965;fighting among ethnic groups - loosely associated political rebels,armed gangs, and various government forces in Great Lakes

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region transcending the boundaries of Burundi, DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DROC), Rwanda, and Uganda - abatedsubstantial ly from a decade ago due largely to UN peacekeeping,international mediation, and efforts by local governments tocreate civi l societies; nonetheless, 57,000 Rwandan refugees sti l lreside in 21 African states, including Zambia, Gabon, and 20,000who fled to Burundi in 2005 and 2006 to escape drought andrecriminations from traditional courts investigating the 1994massacres; the 2005 DROC and Rwanda border verif icationmechanism to stem rebel actions on both sides of the borderremains in place

Saint Helena, Ascension,and Tristan da Cunha none

Saint Kitts and Nevis joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim thatAves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permitsVenezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continentalshelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea

Saint Lucia joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim thatAves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permitsVenezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continentalshelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea

Saint Pierre and Miquelon none

Saint Vincent and theGrenadines

joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim thatAves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permitsVenezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continentalshelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea

Samoa none

San Marino none

Sao Tome and Principe none

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia has reinforced its concrete-fi l led security barrieralong sections of the now fully demarcated border with Yemen tostem il legal cross-border activities; Kuwait and Saudi Arabiacontinue discussions on a maritime boundary with Iran; SaudiArabia claims Egyptian-administered islands of Tiran and Sanafir

Senegal The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau attempt to stem separatistviolence, cross border raids, and arms smuggling into theircountries from Senegal's Casamance region, and in 2006,respectively accepted 6,000 and 10,000 Casamance residentsfleeing the confl ict; 2,500 Guinea-Bissau residents fled intoSenegal in 2006 to escape armed confrontations along theborder

Serbia Serbia with several other states protest the U.S. and otherstates' recognition of Kosovo's declaration of its status as a

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sovereign and independent state in February 2008; ethnicSerbian municipalities along Kosovo's northern border challengefinal status of Kosovo-Serbia boundary; several thousand NATO-led Kosovo Force peacekeepers under United Nations InterimAdministration Mission in Kosovo authority continue to keep thepeace within Kosovo between the ethnic Albanian majority andthe Serb minority in Kosovo; Serbia delimited about half of theboundary with Bosnia and Herzegovina, but sections along theDrina River remain in dispute

Seychelles Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Islands (UK-administered British Indian Ocean Territory)

Sierra Leone as domestic fighting among disparate ethnic groups, rebelgroups, warlords, and youth gangs in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea,Liberia, and Sierra Leone gradually abates, the number ofrefugees in border areas has begun to slowly dwindle; SierraLeone considers excessive Guinea's definition of the flood plainl imits to define the left bank boundary of the Makona and Moarivers and protests Guinea's continued occupation of these landsincluding the hamlet of Yenga occupied since 1998

Singapore disputes persist with Malaysia over deliveries of fresh water toSingapore, Singapore's extensive land reclamation works, bridgeconstruction, and maritime boundaries in the Johor and SingaporeStraits; in 2008, ICJ awarded sovereignty of Pedra Branca (PulauBatu Puteh/Horsburgh Island) to Singapore, and Middle Rocks toMalaysia, but did not rule on maritime regimes, boundaries, ordisposition of South Ledge; Indonesia and Singapore continue towork on final ization of their 1973 maritime boundary agreementby defining unresolved areas north of Indonesia's Batam Island;piracy remains a problem in the Malacca Strait

Slovakia bilateral government, legal, technical and economic workinggroup negotiations continued in 2006 between Slovakia andHungary over Hungary's completion of its portion of theGabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project along theDanube; as a member state that forms part of the EU's externalborder, Slovakia has implemented the strict Schengen borderrules

Slovenia the Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement,which would have ceded most of Piran Bay and maritime accessto Slovenia and several vi l lages to Croatia, remains unratif ied andin dispute; Slovenia also protests Croatia's 2003 claim to anexclusive economic zone in the Adriatic; as a member state thatforms part of the EU's external border, Slovenia has implementedthe strict Schengen border rules to curb i l legal migration andcommerce through southeastern Europe while encouraging closecross-border ties with Croatia

Solomon Islands since 2003, Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands,consisting of police, mil itary, and civi l ian advisors drawn from 15countries, has assisted in reestablishing and maintaining civi l andpolitical order while reinforcing regional stabil ity and security

Somalia Ethiopian forces invaded southern Somalia and routed Islamist

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