Archipelagic state

An archipelagic state is a designation used for island countries that consist of an archipelago. The designation is legally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In various conferences,^[1] The Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines are the five original sovereign states that obtained approval in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea signed in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 10 December 1982 and qualified as the archipelagic states.^[2]

Archipelagic states are composed of groups of islands forming a state as a single unit, with the islands and the waters within the baselines as internal waters. Under this concept ("archipelagic doctrine"), an archipelago shall be regarded as a single unit, so that the waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the state, and are subject to its exclusive sovereignty. The baselines must enclose the main islands of the archipelago, and the enclosed water to land ratio must be "between 1:1 and 9:1".^[3]

The approval of the United Nations (UN) for the five sovereign states as archipelagic states respect^[4] existing agreements with other countries and shall recognize traditional fishing rights and other legitimate activities of the immediately adjacent neighboring countries in certain areas falling within archipelagic waters. The terms and conditions for the exercise of such rights and activities, including the nature, the extent and the areas to which they apply, shall, at the request of any of the countries concerned, be regulated by bilateral agreements between them. Such rights shall not be transferred to or shared with third countries or their nationals.^[5]

As of 20 June 2015, a total of 22 countries have sought to claim archipelagic status.^[6]

List of archipelagic states[edit]

This is a list of the archipelagic states in the world. These island countries have sought to claim archipelagic status by utilising the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provisions.^[7] Bolded are the five original official archipelagic states.

Name	Geographic configuration	Geologic location	Population	Area (km²)^[8]	Population density (per km²)	Geographic location
Antigua and Barbuda	One archipelago consists of two main islands	Continental shelf	86,295	440	194	Caribbean Sea, Leeward Islands
Bahamas	One archipelago	Continental shelf	392,000	13,878	23.27	Atlantic Ocean, Lucayan Archipelago
Cape Verde	One archipelago	Oceanic	518,467	4,033	125.5	Atlantic Ocean, West Africa
Comoros	One archipelago consists of three main islands	Oceanic	784,745	2,235	275	Indian Ocean, East Africa
Dominican Republic	One archipelago with the main island (Hispaniola) shared with another country (Haiti)	Continental shelf	10,652,000	48,442	208.2	Caribbean Sea, Greater Antilles
Fiji	One archipelago consists of two main islands	Oceanic	859,178	18,274	46.4	Pacific Ocean, Melanesia
Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique	One archipelago consists of two main islands	Continental shelf	110,000	344	319.8	Caribbean Sea, Windward Islands
Indonesia	One archipelago	Two continental shelves	255,461,700	1,904,569	124.7	Maritime Southeast Asia, Malay Archipelago
Jamaica	One archipelago consists of one main island	Continental shelf	2,847,232	10,991	252	Caribbean Sea, Greater Antilles
Kiribati	Archipelago	Oceanic	98,000	811	135	Pacific Ocean, Micronesia
Maldives	One archipelago	Oceanic	329,198	298	1,105	Indian Ocean, South Asia
Marshall Islands	Archipelago	Oceanic	62,000	181	342.5	Pacific Ocean, Micronesia
Mauritius	Two archipelagos consist of two main islands	Oceanic	1,244,663	2,040	610	Indian Ocean, East Africa
Papua New Guinea	One archipelago with the main island (New Guinea) shared with another country (Indonesia)	Continental shelf	6,732,000	462,840	14.5	Pacific Ocean, Melanesia
Philippines	One archipelago	Continental shelf	101,398,120	300,000	295	Pacific Ocean, Malay Archipelago
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Archipelago consists of one main island	Continental shelf	120,000	389	307	Caribbean Sea, Windward Islands
São Tomé and Príncipe	One archipelago consists of two main islands	Continental shelf	163,000	1,001	169.1	Atlantic Ocean, Central Africa
Seychelles	Four archipelagos	Oceanic	87,500	455	192	Indian Ocean, East Africa
Solomon Islands	Five archipelagos	Oceanic	523,000	28,400	18.1	Pacific Ocean, Melanesia
Trinidad and Tobago	One archipelago consists of two main islands	Continental shelf	1,299,953	5,131	254.4	Caribbean Sea, Windward Islands
Tuvalu	One archipelago	Oceanic	12,373	26	475.88	Pacific Ocean, Polynesia
Vanuatu	One archipelago	Oceanic	243,304	12,190	19.7	Pacific Ocean, Melanesia