List of countries that border only one other country

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This is a list of countries that have a land border with only one other country. The list does not include dependent territories, de facto independent disputed or occupied areas, or unrecognised countries.

Nations that share a land border with only one other country often have concerns about domination by the other state if it is larger. These can be fears of an outright take-over as has happened historically to such states as Timor Leste, which was part of Indonesia for a couple of decades, and Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom until 1921. Today concerns are often about economic domination such as between Canada and the United States or between Denmark and Germany. Because much trade goes over land these countries are often heavily reliant on their single neighbour.

With transport by sea being cheaper than transport by land, some of these countries may be said to have several neighbours "by sea". For example, while Denmark has in some ways and some periods been dominated by its largest neighbour, Germany, it has also been a prospering trade nation, trading with close-by Sweden as well as with Germany.

Contents

1 Landlocked and completely surrounded (
2
3 Partly surrounded, with sea access
4 Sharing a long border
5 Sharing an island
6 Disputed
7 Non-pertinent borders
8 Historical
9 See also

Landlocked and completely surrounded (

Lesotho - by South Africa, 909 km.
San Marino - by Italy, 39 km.
Vatican City - by Italy, 3.2 km

Qatar - with Saudi Arabia, 60 km
South Korea - with North Korea, 238 km (across the Demilitarized Zone)
Denmark - with Germany, 68 km (has an ocean border with Sweden, see list below)

Partly surrounded, with sea access

The Gambia - by Senegal, 740 km
Monaco - by France, 4.4 km
Brunei - by Malaysia, 381 km

Sharing a long border

Canada - with the United States, 8,893 km
Portugal - with Spain, 1,214 km

Sharing an island

See also List of divided islands

Dominican Republic borders only Haiti, 360 km (on the island of Hispaniola)
Haiti borders only Dominican Republic, 360 km (on the island of Hispaniola)
Brunei borders only Malaysia, 381 km (on the island of Borneo)
Papua New Guinea borders only Indonesia, 820 km (on the island of New Guinea)
East Timor borders only Indonesia, 228 km (on the island of Timor)
Republic of Ireland borders only the United Kingdom (specifically, Northern Ireland), 360 km (on the island of Ireland)
United Kingdom (specifically, Northern Ireland) borders only the Republic of Ireland, 360 km (on the island of Ireland)

Disputed

Nagorno-Karabakh borders only Azerbaijan

Non-pertinent borders

Borders relevant to this list may arguably include short theoretical borders in the middle of man-made constructions. A bridge or an artificial island does not constitute a land border, however.

Denmark, in addition to its border with Germany, technically also has an extremely short border with Sweden across the Øresundsförbindelsen
Singapore, although an island nation with no natural land borders, can be said to have two very short borders with Malaysia across a bridge and a causeway
Bahrain, likewise an island nation, is connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway. A bridge connecting it to Qatar is planned but as yet incomplete.
United Kingdom, in addition to its border with the Republic of Ireland, has a border with France in the Channel Tunnel. The British territory Gibraltar occupies a small peninsula and has a short land border with Spain.
The island of Saint Martin is split between two territories that otherwise are all islands. The northern half, Saint-Martin, is part of the French département of Guadeloupe; the southern half, Sint Maarten, is part of the Netherlands Antilles.

The other category concerns the borders of disputed or non-sovereign territories which may or may not maintain de facto control of their land and borders:

Cyprus has its only border with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus although the latter is not internationally recognised; Dhekelia (part of the sovereign base areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia) is on UN buffer zone between Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, bordering both of them. Technically Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus do not border each other immediately, as separated by the UN buffer zone, except at the village of Strovilia. Since neither Cyprus nor the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus recognise each other [link] [link], both would theoretically claim that there is only one country on the island of Cyprus.
South Korea not only shares one border with North Korea at the Demarcation Line, but it is separated from North Korea by a 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone.
Cuba has a short border with the military base of Guantanamo Bay, controlled by the USA
Hong Kong, comprising a peninsula and more than 200 islands on the South China Sea, is now a part of China, but the land border and coasts are controlled as though Hong Kong were an international exclave.
Macau comprises a peninsula and two islands on the South China Sea, 60km west of Hong Kong. Its situation is similar to Hong Kong's; it, too, maintains border and coastal controls.

Historical

There are many countries that historically had only one neighbour. Some no longer exist while others now have either no land borders or borders with more than one nation due to map changes.

Korea bordered only China for several hundred years before 1860, after which a second international border with Russia appeared, according to the Convention of Peking
Ciskei, one of the South African "independent" homelands, reincorporated on April 27, 1994
Dominion of Newfoundland, with Canada, until March 31, 1949 when it became the Canadian province of Newfoundland (now named Newfoundland and Labrador)
Scotland and England bordered only each other before the two were united by the Acts of Union in 1707.