ok xavier i believe i can finally settle the
intriguing & difficult question of absolute extremest
fre
the easternmost point of france

it is indeed in active dispute

& there is no clear tripoint to be found there

the map i flashed earlier
showing fre as fjfrvu in about 174 east longitude
http://w2.vliz.be/vmdcdata/marbound/geointerface.php?Pol_ID=5
does reflect an actual bilateral fjfr agreement done
in 1983
but needs to be balanced by the third party view or vu
of vanuatu

so please also note how this alternative eez map
separates the zone generated by matthew & hunter
islands from french new caledonia
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/research/projects/images/pacific_eez.gif
& eliminates the fjfrvu trijunction

in the vanuatu view
this disconnected zone is joined to vanuatu rather
than france
& fre is in that case at only about 170 east longitude

the france fiji agreement is mentioned here
on original page 6 or pdf page 7
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/LS101.pdf

& this fairly recent report confirms that the dispute
is still active
http://www.news.vu/fr/news/RegionalNews/050601-Contentieux-de-Matthew-et-Hunter.shtml
with funny translation here in case anyone needs it
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.news.vu/fr/news/RegionalNews/050601-Contentieux-de-Matthew-et-Hunter.shtml&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=28&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dvanuatu%2Bmatthew%2Bhunter%26start%3D30%26num%3D30%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

this united nations doc seems to be mistaken in
including walpole island in the frvu dispute
http://islands.unep.ch/CLR.htm
http://islands.unep.ch/ILR.htm#1306
for there is apparently no other evidence of a vanuatu
claim to it

for example
http://www.iomoon.com/matthew.html

so very probably the easternmost undisputedly french
land is here
http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/newcaledonia/walpole.htm
& the absolutely easternmost albeit disputed bit is
here
http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/publicaciones/publi_volcanes/oceania/imagenes/hunter_island.jpg

for some reason i wasnt expecting uninhabitable
islands to be used for eez projections
but they evidently are fair game

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com