List_of_Oceanian_countries

List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Oceania

List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Oceania

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This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in the geographical region of Oceania. Although it is mostly ocean and spans many tectonic plates, Oceania is occasionally listed as one of the continents.

Exclusive economic zones of Oceania and neighboring areas

Most of this list follows the boundaries of geopolitical Oceania, which includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The main continental landmass of Oceania is Australia.[1]

Boundaries of Oceania

The boundary between Southeast Asia and Oceania is not clearly defined. For political reasons, the United Nations considers the boundary between the two regions to be the IndonesianPapua New Guinean border.[2] Papua New Guinea is occasionally considered Asian as it neighbours Indonesia,[3][4][5] but this is rare, and it is generally accepted to be part of Oceania. Biogeographically and geologically, Papua and West Papua provinces are parts of Oceania.

Likewise, there is also no clearly defined boundary between Latin America and Oceania; the mostly uninhabited oceanic Pacific islands near Latin America have been considered by some as part of Oceania, both historically and in present-day times.[6][7][8][9][10] Nearly all of these islands have become politically associated with the Americas, but none lie on the respective tectonic plates of those continents, nor were any inhabited by Indigenous peoples of the Americas during the pre-Columbian era.[11] Some share strong biogeographical affinities to geopolitical Oceania.[12] The Malay Archipelago has historically been associated with Oceania,[13][9][14][15] however, very few present-day definitions include it as part of Oceania.[16][17] The Malay Archipelago lies on the continental shelf of Asia; Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (both adjacent to the Malay Archipelago) lie on the Australian tectonic plate, and are not politically associated with Asia. The Bonin Islands, which have been politically integrated into Japan, are not geologically associated with the Asian continent, and are biogeographically within Micronesia.

Sovereign states

United Nations member states

This section includes all sovereign states located predominantly in Oceania that are member states of the United Nations.[18] All 14 states are full members of the Pacific Islands Forum.[19]

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Associated states

Two states, the Cook Islands and Niue, are in free association with New Zealand. While maintaining a close constitutional and political relationship with New Zealand, both states have full treaty-making capacity and are members of several United Nations specialized agencies. Both independently engage in diplomatic relations with sovereign states under their own name, and are full members of the Pacific Islands Forum. Because of these features, both act in many ways as fully independent states.[29]

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Non-sovereign territories

The following are entities considered to be within Oceania that fall into one of these categories:

1. Federal territories of sovereign states located outside these states' mainland.

2. Territories that constitute integral parts of sovereign states in some form other than as federal territories, where a significant part of the sovereign state's landmass is located outside Oceania or the territory is located outside the sovereign state's mainland. Many of these territories are often described as dependencies or autonomous areas.

3. Dependent territories of sovereign states.

Two of these territories (French Polynesia and New Caledonia) are associate members of the Pacific Islands Forum, while five others (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Tokelau, and Wallis and Futuna) hold observer status within the organization.

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See also

Island countries

Notes

  1. Australia has two external territory in the Antarctic, the Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the claimed Australian Antarctic Territory.
  2. New Zealand has five island groups in the Subantarctic. New Zealand claims territory in the Antarctic as the Ross Dependency.

References

  1. "Fast facts about Australia - Australia in Brief - Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade". Archived from the original on 2003-08-20. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  2. Frank Barton, Thomas (1978). "Papua New Guinea: Tenth country of Southeast Asia?". Journal of Geography. 77 (7): 269–272. Bibcode:1978JGeog..77..269B. doi:10.1080/00221347808980139. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  3. Quan, Jinqiang; Cai, Yuan; Yang, Tianliang; Ge, Qianyun; Jiao, Ting; Zhao, Shengguo (2020). "Phylogeny and conservation priority assessment of Asian domestic chicken genetic resources". Global Ecology and Conservation. 22: e00944. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e00944. S2CID 213962014.
  4. "Oceania Bibliography" (PDF). Helictite: Journal of Australasian Cave Research. 25 (1). 1987. Retrieved 16 March 2022. This paper covers the region from Irian Jaya (Western New Guinea, a province of New Guinea) in the west to Galapagos Islands (Equador) and Easter Island (Chile) in the east.
  5. Review of the Protected Areas System in Oceania (PDF). International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 1986. Retrieved 17 January 2022. Easter Island on the east has been included on the basis of its Polynesian and biogeographic affinities even though it is politically apart. The other islands of the eastern Pacific (Galapagos, Juan Fernandez, etc.) have sometimes been included in Oceania.
  6. Todd, Ian (1974). Island Realm: A Pacific Panorama. Angus & Robertson. p. 190. ISBN 9780207127618. Retrieved 2 February 2022. [we] can further define the word culture to mean language. Thus we have the French language part of Oceania, the Spanish part and the Japanese part. The Japanese culture groups of Oceania are the Bonin Islands, the Marcus Islands and the Volcano Islands. These three clusters, lying south and south-east of Japan, are inhabited either by Japanese or by people who have now completely fused with the Japanese race. Therefore they will not be taken into account in the proposed comparison of the policies of non - Oceanic cultures towards Oceanic peoples. On the eastern side of the Pacific are a number of Spanish language culture groups of islands. Two of them, the Galapagos and Easter Island, have been dealt with as separate chapters in this volume. Only one of the dozen or so Spanish culture island groups of Oceania has an Oceanic population — the Polynesians of Easter Island. The rest are either uninhabited or have a Spanish - Latin - American population consisting of people who migrated from the mainland. Therefore, the comparisons which follow refer almost exclusively to the English and French language cultures.
  7. Brown, Robert (1876). "Oceania: General Characteristics". The countries of the world. Oxford University. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  8. "Oceania Military Guide". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  9. Flett, Iona; Haberle, Simon (2008). "East of Easter: Traces of human impact in the far-eastern Pacific" (PDF). In Clark, Geoffrey; Leach, Foss; O'Connor, Sue (eds.). Islands of Inquiry. ANU Press. pp. 281–300. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.593.8988. hdl:1885/38139. ISBN 978-1-921313-89-9. JSTOR j.ctt24h8gp.20.
  10. Udvardy, Miklos D.F. "A Classification of the Biogeographical Provinces of the World" (PDF). UNESCO. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  11. Parley, Peter (1866). Tales about Europe, Asia, Africa, America, & Oceania. Oxford University. p. 2. Retrieved 12 March 2022. Oceania consists of Australasia, Polynesia and Malaysia. Australasia means South Asia. It comprises New Holland or Australia, Van Diemen's Land or Tasmania, Papua or New Guinea, Norfolk Island, New Zealand and some smaller islands. Polynesia is the term given to the various islands in the Pacific Ocean, which, as you may see on the map, are situated to the eastward of Australia, including the Philippine Islands. Malaysia is the name given to the islands of the Malay Archipelago, which are principally inhabited by the Malay race, comprising Borneo, the Sunday Isles, Celebes, Moluccas [...]
  12. Cornell, Sophia S. (1859). Cornell's First Steps in Geography. The University of Michigan. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  13. Chambers's New Handy Volume American Encyclopædia: Volume 9. The University of Virginia. 1885. p. 657. Retrieved 13 March 2022. the whole region has sometimes been called Oceania, and sometimes Australasia—generally, however, in modern times, to the exclusion of the islands in the Indian archipelago, to which certain writers have given the name of Malaysia [...] we have the three geographical divisions of Malaysia, Australasia and Polynesia, the last mentioned of which embraces all the groups and single islands not included under the other two. Accepting this arrangement, still the limits between Australasia and Polynesia have not been very accurately defined; indeed, scarcely any two geographers appear to be quite agreed upon the subject; neither shall we pretend to decide in the matter. The following list, however, comprises all the principal groups and single island not previously named as coming under the division of Australasia: 1. North of the equator—The Ladrone or Marian islands. the Pelew islands, the Caroline islands, the Radack and Ralick chains, the Sandwich islands, Gilbert's or Kingstnill's archipelago. and the Galapagos. 2. South of the equator—The Ellice group, the Phoenix and Union groups. the Fiji islands, the Friendly islands, the Navigator's islands. Cook's or Harvey islands, the Society islands. the Dangerous archipelago, the Marquesas islands, Pitcairn island, and Easter island.
  14. Henderson, John William (1971). Area Handbook for Oceania. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 5. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  15. "United Nations Member States". United Nations. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  16. "Member Countries". Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  17. "Field Listing :: Names". CIA. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  18. "UNGEGN List of Country Names" (PDF). United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. 2007. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  19. "List of countries, territories and currencies". Europa. 9 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  20. "ISO 3166". International Organization for Standardization. 1974. Retrieved 2022-07-24.
  21. "Field Listing :: Capital". CIA. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  22. "UNGEGN World Geographical Names". United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  23. "Field Listing :: Area". CIA. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  24. Gillard, Charles Andrew (2012). "Sovereignty, Self-Determination and the South-West Pacific" (PDF). University of Waikato. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  25. "Country Comparison :: Population". CIA. July 2012. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  26. Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2022.
  27. Australian Government – Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. "2016 Census: Christmas Island" (PDF). Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  28. "COMUNAS: ACTUALIZACIÓN POBLACIÓN 2002-2012 Y PROYECCIONES 2013-2020". National Statistics Institute (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  29. "Guam". CIA. Retrieved 23 August 2011.

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