The France–Tonga Maritime Delimitation Convention is a 1980

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

in which

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

agreed to a

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

between Tonga and the French territory of

Wallis and Futuna Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands (), is a French island territorial collectivity, collectivity in the Oceania, South Pacific, situated between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji to the southwest, Tonga t ...

. The convention was signed in Nuku'alofa on 11 January 1980. The text of the treaty is brief and states that the boundary will be an equidistant line between the Tongan and the French islands and that as soon as possible the parties will draw up cartographic maps that illustrate the border. When the border was actually drawn, Tongan sovereignty over Niuafo'ou was considered in drawing the equidistant line even though Niuafo'ou is hundreds of kilometres north of the rest of the islands of Tonga. As a result, the boundary is much closer to the islands of Wallis and Futuna than it is to the main islands of Tonga. The treaty came into force on the day of signature. The full name of the treaty is ''Convention between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga on the delimitation of economic zones''.

References

*Jonathan I. Charney, David A. Colson, Robert W. Smith (eds., 2005). ''International Maritime Boundaries'' 5 vols. (American Society of International Law; Hotei Publishing: Leiden) pp. 1011–1017. *Ewan W. Anderson (2003). ''International Boundaries: A Geopolitical Atlas'' (Routledge: New York, ) p. 297.

External links

Full text of convention
1980 in Oceania 1980 in Tonga Treaties concluded in 1980 Treaties entered into force in 1980 Tonga–Wallis and Futuna border Treaties of Tonga 1980 in France Boundary treaties Bilateral treaties of France {{Treaty-stub