An archipelagic state is an island country that consists of one or more archipelago. The designation is legally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 (UNCLOS III).[1] The Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines are the five original sovereign states that obtained approval in the UNCLOS signed in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 10 December 1982 and qualified as the archipelagic states.[2][3]
An archipelagic state can designate the waters between the islands as sovereign archipelagic waters.
As of 20 June 2015, a total of 22 sovereign states have sought to claim archipelagic status.[4] Few countries comprise an archipelago in a geographical sense, but chose not to claim the archipelagic state status, including Japan, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cuba, and Iceland.[5]