Singapore
disputes persist with Malaysia over deliveries of fresh
water to Singapore, Singapore's extensive land reclamation works,
bridge construction, maritime boundaries in the Johor and Singapore
Straits; in November 2007 the ICJ will hold public hearings as a
consequence of the Memorials and Countermemorials filed by the
parties in 2003 and 2005 over sovereignty of Pedra Branca
Island/Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge; Indonesia and
Singapore continue to work on finalization of their 1973 maritime
boundary agreement by defining unresolved areas north of Indonesia's
Batam Island ; piracy remains a problem in the Malacca Strait
Slovakia
bilateral government, legal, technical and economic working
group negotiations continued in 2006 between Slovakia and Hungary
over Hungary's completion of its portion of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros
hydroelectric dam project along the Danube ; as a member state that
forms part of the EU's external border, Slovakia must implement the
strict Schengen border rules
Slovenia
the Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement,
which would have ceded most of Piran Bay and maritime access to
Slovenia and several villages to Croatia, remains unratified and in
dispute; Slovenia also protests Croatia's 2003 claim to an exclusive
economic zone in the Adriatic; as a member state that forms part of
the EU's external border, Slovenia must implement the strict
Schengen border rules to curb illegal migration and commerce through
southeastern Europe while encouraging close cross-border ties with
Croatia
Solomon Islands
since 2003, Australian Defense Force leads the
Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) to
maintain civil and political order and reinforce regional security
Somalia
Ethiopian forces invade southern Somalia and rout Islamist
courts from Moghadishu in January 2007; "Somaliland" secessionists
provide port facilities in Berbera to landlocked Ethiopia and have
established commercial ties with other regional states; "Puntland"
and "Somaliland" "governments" seek international support in their
secessionist aspirations and overlapping border claims; the
undemarcated former British administrative line has little meaning
as a political separation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden
and southern Somalia's Oromo region; Kenya works hard to prevent the
clan and militia fighting in Somalia from spreading south across the
border, which has long been open to nomadic pastoralists
South Africa
South Africa has placed military along the border to
apprehend the thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing economic dysfunction
and political persecution; as of January 2007, South Africa also
supports large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (33,000), Somalia (20,000), Burundi
(6,500) and other states in Africa (26,000); managed dispute with
Namibia over the location of the boundary in the Orange River
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Argentina, which claims
the islands in its constitution and briefly occupied the islands by
force in 1982, agreed in 1995 to no longer seek settlement by force
Southern Ocean
Antarctic Treaty defers claims (see Antarctica
entry), but Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, NZ, Norway, and UK
assert claims (some overlapping), including the continental shelf in
the Southern Ocean; several states have expressed an interest in
extending those continental shelf claims under the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to include undersea
ridges; the US and most other states do not recognize the land or
maritime claims of other states and have made no claims themselves
(the US and Russia have reserved the right to do so); no formal
claims exist in the waters in the sector between 90 degrees west and
150 degrees west
Spain
in 2003, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by
referendum to remain a British colony and against a "total shared
sovereignty" arrangement while demanding participation in talks
between the UK and Spain; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant
Gibraltar greater autonomy; Morocco protests Spain's control over
the coastal enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and the islands of Penon de
Velez de la Gomera, Penon de Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas, and
surrounding waters; Morocco serves as the primary launching site of
illegal migration into Spain from North Africa; Portugal does not
recognize Spanish sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza based
on a difference of interpretation of the 1815 Congress of Vienna and
the 1801 Treaty of Badajoz
Spratly Islands
all of the Spratly Islands are claimed by China,
Taiwan, and Vietnam; parts of them are claimed by Malaysia and the
Philippines; in 1984, Brunei established an exclusive fishing zone
that encompasses Louisa Reef in the southern Spratly Islands but has
not publicly claimed the reef; claimants in November 2002 signed the
"Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea,"
which has eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding "code
of conduct"; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China, the
Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine
seismic activities in the Spratly Islands