- Cook Islands–United States Maritime Boundary Treaty
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Cook Islands – United States Maritime Boundary Treaty Treaty between the United States of America and the Cook Islands on Friendship and Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between the United States of America and the Cook Islands Type boundary delimitation Signed 11 June 1980 Location Rarotonga, Cook Islands Effective 8 September 1983 Parties 
Cook Islands
United StatesDepositary 
United Nations SecretariatLanguages English The Cook Islands – United States Maritime Boundary Treaty is a 1980 treaty that establishes the maritime boundary between the Cook Islands and American Samoa. It resolved a number of territorial disputes between the Cook Islands and the United States.[1]
The treaty was signed in Rarotonga on 11 June 1980. The boundary is an equidistant line between the nearest islands of the two states. The boundary is 566 nautical miles long and consists of 24 maritime straight-line segments defined by 25 individual coordinate points. The north end of the boundary forms the tripoint with Tokelau and the south end of the boundary forms the tripoint with Niue.
The treaty resolved a number of territorial disputes between the Cook Islands and the United States. First, the United States recognised the Cook Islands' sovereignty over the islands of Pukapuka, Manihiki, Rakahanga, and Penrhyn. Second, the United States implicitly demonstrated that it had abandoned its claim that Tokelau was part of American Samoa, since the boundary was set to terminate at its north end at a point at which a hypothetical equidistant boundary tripoint between the Cook Islands, American Samoa, and Tokelau would have existed. In December 1980, the United States confirmed the tripoint by agreeing to the Treaty of Tokehega with New Zealand, which formally established the Tokelau – American Samoa border.
The full name of the treaty is Treaty between the United States of America and the Cook Islands on Friendship and Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between the United States of America and the Cook Islands. It was ratified by the United States Senate and the Cook Islands in 1983 and came into force on 8 September 1983.
Contents
See also
Notes
- ^ Anderson, Ewan W. (2003). International Boundaries: A Geopolitical Atlas, p. 595; Charney, Jonathan I. et al. (2005). International Maritime Boundaries, 5 vols, pp. 985–993.
References
- Anderson, Ewan W. (2003). International Boundaries: A Geopolitical Atlas. Routledge: New York. 10-ISBN 157958375X/13-ISBN 9781579583750; OCLC 54061586
- Charney, Jonathan I., David A. Colson, Robert W. Smith. (2005). International Maritime Boundaries, 5 vols. Hotei Publishing: Leiden. 10-ISBN 0792311876/13-ISBN 9780792311874; 10-ISBN 904111954X/13-ISBN 9789041119544; 10-ISBN 9041103457/13-ISBN 9789041103451; 10-ISBN 9004144617/13-ISBN 9789004144613; 10-ISBN 900414479X/13-ISBN 9789004144798; OCLC 23254092
External links
Categories:- 1980 in American Samoa
- 1980 in the Cook Islands
- American Samoa–Cook Islands border
- Boundary treaties
- Disputed territories in Oceania
- Treaties of the Cook Islands
- Treaties of the United States
- Guano Islands Act
- 1980 in Oceania
- 1980 in the United States
- Treaties concluded in 1980
- Treaties entered into force in 1983
- Pukapuka
- Manihiki
- Rakahanga
- Penrhyn (atoll)
- Cook Islands–United States relations
- Cook Islands stubs
- American Samoa stubs
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