The Italy–Tunisia Delimitation Agreement is a 1971

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal per ...

between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

in which the two countries agreed to delimit a

maritime boundary A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of the Earth's water surface areas using physiographic or geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources,VLIZ Maritime Boun ...

between them in the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

. The text of the treaty sets out a complex boundary in the

Strait of Sicily The Strait of Sicily (also known as Sicilian Strait, Sicilian Channel, Channel of Sicily, Sicilian Narrows and Pantelleria Channel; it, Canale di Sicilia or the Stretto di Sicilia; scn, Canali di Sicilia or Strittu di Sicilia, ar, مضيق ص ...

representing an equidistant line between

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and Tunisia, with the exception of

Pantelleria Pantelleria (; Sicilian: ''Pantiddirìa'', Maltese: ''Pantellerija'' or ''Qawsra''), the ancient Cossyra or Cossura, is an Italian island and comune in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and east of the Tunisi ...

and the

Pelagie Islands The Pelagie Islands ( it, Isole Pelagie; scn, Ìsuli Pilaggî), from the Greek , meaning "open sea", are the three small islands of Lampedusa, Lampione, and Linosa, located in the Mediterranean Sea between Malta and Tunisia, south of Sicily. ...

(

Lampedusa Lampedusa ( , , ; scn, Lampidusa ; grc, Λοπαδοῦσσα and Λοπαδοῦσα and Λοπαδυῦσσα, Lopadoûssa; mt, Lampeduża) is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The '' comune'' of ...

, Linosa and

Lampione Lampione (; scn, Lampiuni; ar, جزيرة الكتاب, ''Jazīrat al-Kitāb'') is a small rocky island located in the Mediterranean Sea, which belongs geographically to the Pelagie Islands and administratively to the ''comune'' of Lampedusa e ...

). The maritime boundary around these islands, all closer to Tunisia, is made up of 13- nautical-mile arcs of

territorial sea The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and pote ...

centered on each island which join one another and the equidistant line at the center of the Channel of Sicily mentioned above. The boundary terminates just short of an equidistant line between Malta and the Italian Pelagie Islands and the westernmost point of the boundary line forms a maritime

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

with

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

.Charney, Jonathan I. ''et al.'' (2005). ''International Maritime Boundaries,'' p. 2863. On 23 January 1975, the countries by agreement added supplemental minutes to the treaty, including a map of the boundary and 32 individual coordinate points that define it. It came into force on 6 December 1978 after it was

ratified Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inten ...

by both countries. The treaty was signed in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

on 20 August 1971 and its full name is ''Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Tunisia and the Government of the Italian Republic concerning the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf between the two Countries''.

Notes

References

* Anderson, Ewan W. (2003). ''International Boundaries: A Geopolitical Atlas.'' Routledge: New York.
OCLC 54061586
* Charney, Jonathan I., David A. Colson, Robert W. Smith. (2005). ''International Maritime Boundaries,'' 5 vols. Hotei Publishing: Leiden. ; ; ; ;
OCLC 23254092

External links

Full text of agreement
{{DEFAULTSORT:Italy-Tunisia Delimitation Agreement 1971 in Italy 1971 in Tunisia Treaties concluded in 1971 Boundary treaties Italy–Tunisia border Treaties of Tunisia Treaties entered into force in 1978 Treaties of Italy Mediterranean Italy–Tunisia relations