Michael,
Given that you were probably working with pretty small-scale charts, I
applaud your list of potential territorial sea tripoints. The only omission
I spotted was Croatia-Italy-Slovenia, and I'm sure you meant
EGYPT-Jordan-Saudi Arabia rather than Israel-Jordan-Saudi Arabia....
However, using some of the sources I am fortunate to have available here in
Durham, I am afraid that I am going to have to raise doubts about five of
the tripoints on your list:
1) Using equidistance lines, the Kuwait-Iran-Iraq tripoint lies a couple of
miles beyond the territorial sea limits of the three countries (although it
is still a potential continental shelf/EEZ tripoint).
2) Using equidistance lines, the France-Netherlands territorial sea boundary
off St Martin would not meet the France UK boundary between St Martin and
Anguilla, so I fear there is no possibility of a tripoint here.
3, 4, 5) The potential El Salvador-Honduras-Nicaragua,
Belize-Guatemala-Honduras, and Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore tripoints all
trip up over the use of 3 nautical mile territorial sea limits. In due
course, Singapore and Belize may extend their claimed territorial sea limits
to 12 nautical miles, thereby creating the possibility of tripoints.
However, the prospects for a tripoint between El Salvador, Honduras and
Nicaragua seem remote, as the jurisidctional regime in the Gulf of Fonseca
(3-mile territorial seas and joint sovereignty beyond) was laid down by the
International Court of Justice in 1993.
So territorial sea tripoints are rare beasts indeed. As yet, none has been
confirmed in a formal boundary agreement.
m a r t i n
--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., michael donner <m@d...> wrote:
> please confirm or rule out any of the following maritime tri country point
> guesses that you can
> &or please add to the list if you can
>
> any positive findings will be combined with the list of the 161
continental
> tri country points that have been previously identified
>
> exact legal coords win a prize
>
> bahrain qatar saudi arabia
>
> belize guatemala honduras
>
> djibouti eritrea yemen
>
> egypt israel jordan
>
> el salvador honduras nicaragua
>
> france netherlands united kingdom
> between anguilla & st martin
>
> indonesia malaysia singapore
>
> iran iraq kuwait
>
> israel jordan saudi arabia
>
> qatar saudi arabia united arab emirates
>
> & finally the spratly islands mess involving up to 6 countries
> for which there are perhaps dozens of possible tripoint permutations
> & about which any informed estimates or guesses would be appreciated
>
> remember
> the name of the game is now 12 nautical miles
> which means about 14 statute miles
>
> so in order to produce real full bodied tricountry trisovereign points
> meaning the kind we are used to acknowledging on dry land
> &or in fresh water
> & not merely the highly dilute sort of trieez or trisovereignrights points
> which i have until yesterday been swallowing & mistaking for the real
mccoy
> these maritime sovereign territorial boundary trijunctions
> if indeed there are any
> must occur at positions that lie within 12nm of dry lands belonging to all
> 3 participating countries
>
> of course to then qualify as actual & not merely potential
> any suitably close & thus potentially convergent international boundaries
> must also have been fully negotiated by the countries who share them
>
> for tho equidistance is a broadly recognized principle of fairness
> it does not in itself carry the force of an international treaty
>
> so there are really two questions lurking behind each item
>
> are lands of the 3 countries close enough to even produce a tripoint
> &
> have the countries actually established an authoritative position for that
point yet
>
> m