In general, countries around the world can be broadly divided into three categories based on geographical location: landlocked countries, island countries, and coastal countries. A coastal country is a country with a coastline, while a landlocked country is a country that is not surrounded by a coast.
In today's society, coastal countries have certain advantages over landlocked countries. Globally, however, there are countries that have coastlines that account for less than 5% of their borders, more similar to landlocked countries.
Therefore, such a country is called a "quasi-landlocked country". There are 8 such countries in the world, so who are they?
Coastal and landlocked countries have advantages in many ways. First of all, the transportation network of coastal countries is well developed, which is conducive to economic development. Secondly, the coastal countries are more convenient for foreign affairs, and the cost of shipping is lower than that of land transportation.
In addition, landlocked countries may need to go through other countries if they want to do it with countries that are not adjacent, increasing tariffs and other costs, so they are at a disadvantage in **.
As a result, coastal countries are generally growing faster than landlocked countries.
Within our country, there are also significant differences in the degree of development between the East and the West. This is mainly due to the obvious geographical advantages of the eastern coastal region. In addition, coastal countries have access to abundant fishery resources and other strategic marine resources.
In fact, the territory of a modern state includes not only land, but also territorial waters, and in addition to abundant seafood resources, the sea also contains important strategic resources such as oil and natural gas, which belong to the relevant coastal states.
Although the high seas occupy the majority of the world's oceans, it is not easy for landlocked countries to extract energy from the high seas, because the high seas are extremely deep and difficult to exploit, and almost no one cares about them, especially for landlocked countries that are relatively backward in marine technology.
The sea is not only a natural barrier for coastal countries, but also an important means of defending the country. However, today, when navy and missile technology are highly developed, some coastal countries are unable to give full play to their maritime advantages because their coastlines are too short.
These countries, which we call "quasi-landlocked countries", have coastlines that do not allow for ports, and even if they do, they are very inefficient and difficult to drive economic development.
There are eight such countries in the world, and most of the "quasi-landlocked countries" are in a difficult situation. Of course, there are exceptions to the problem of other ways to overcome this dilemma.
Despite its landlocked location, Belgium has shown great potential for economic development thanks to its strategic location. As a coastal country in western Europe, Belgium has a coastline of up to 665 km, which accounts for 46 per cent, almost reaching the tipping point for landlocked countries.
This gives Belgium a distinct advantage over other quasi-landlocked countries. Belgium is not only located in economically developed Europe, but also across the sea from the United Kingdom, and is a developed capitalist country in its own right.
As a result, Belgium is undoubtedly the best of the eight quasi-landlocked countries.
Although the proportion of the Belgian coastline is relatively small, data shows that the country has a coastline of up to 665 km, far from short. The length of Belgium's coastline is closely related to that of its neighbors, France and the Netherlands.
These two countries were once extremely powerful, and the Netherlands was known as the "coachman of the sea". Belgium was ruled by these two countries until 1831 and still retains more than 60 kilometers of coastline, which is quite good.
Belgium also has its own access to the sea, and its Antwerp, located on the lower reaches of the Scheldt River, is the second largest port in Europe and the sixteenth largest in the world. The incoming channel here can reach a depth of 14 meters even at low tide, which is enough for 100,000-ton ships to enter and exit freely.
Antwerp is the world's largest diamond processing and ** centre, with 1,600 diamond companies and several diamond-related museums and showrooms in the city. About 2 3 percent of Belgium's GDP comes from exports, so despite its short coastline, its economy has been given a great boost thanks to the presence of Antwerp.
In contrast, other "quasi-landlocked countries" are less fortunate, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has an inconvenient coastline.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the full name of Bosnia and Herzegovina, although the land area is not small, but the coastline is only a pitiful 25 kilometers, which only occupies 1 of its border4%。
After independence in 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina's geographical disadvantages became even more pronounced: it was surrounded on three sides by Croatia, faced with peninsulas and islands such as the Pelješac Peninsula, and had inconvenient access to the Adriatic Sea in the Mediterranean Gulf.
Open the map, if you don't look closely, you might even mistake Bosnia and Herzegovina for being a landlocked country. Despite its geographical advantages, Bosnia and Herzegovina attracts tourists from all over the world with its unique history and culture.
Although Bosnia and Herzegovina has established a port near the coastline, the sea area is under the strict control of Croatia because this sea area is part of Croatian territory.
Under such circumstances, Bosnia and Herzegovina could not go to sea freely, and felt aggrieved. At the same time, Croatia is also dissatisfied with this move of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because the coastline of Bosnia and Herzegovina divides the territory of Croatia into two parts, which makes it very inconvenient for the Croatian people to travel between the north and the south.
They had planned to build a Peljesac bridge to solve the problem, but this plan stalled due to opposition from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Similarly, Slovenia, located on the Adriatic Sea, is also feeling frustrated by the problem of its coastline.
Despite Slovenia's strategic location, surrounded by countries such as Italy and Croatia, after the collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the area close to the Adriatic Sea was occupied by countries such as Bosnia and Croatia, and Slovenia had to go to great lengths to acquire a stretch of coastline of more than 40 kilometers in the southwestern part of the territory.
According to the data, the historical place of residence of Slovenians did not have access to the sea. During the negotiations before the collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slovenia insisted on the acquisition of 80 per cent of the Gulf of Piran and the establishment of a "maritime corridor" in Croatian waters to allow access to the high seas.
However, Croatia objected to this, which led to a serious dispute between the two countries on this issue. Although in 2001, the two countries signed a draft demarcation of the Gulf of Piran, and with the mediation of the United Nations, Slovenia succeeded in obtaining a "maritime corridor", because Slovenia's access to the sea is severely restricted by countries such as Croatia, even if it has a coastline, it cannot effectively promote the development of its own economy, which is undoubtedly a very painful situation.
While living conditions in Europe's quasi-landlocked countries are generally poor, this is even more common in poor African countries. There are a number of quasi-landlocked countries in Africa that are living in very difficult conditions, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Congo (Brazzaville).
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is named after its capital, Kinshasa. As the second largest country in Africa, its vast territory cannot be described in words.
However, the length of the country's coastline is only 0 of the country's borders3%, only 37 kilometers, as if it is a balloon that has been blown up, showing the shape of "small mouth and big belly".
Fortunately, despite the limited length of the coastline, the DRC's coastline faces directly from the Atlantic Ocean, with no country blocking its traffic and unobstructed sea routes.
As a result, the country's main exports such as cobalt, copper, ** diamonds, and agricultural and forestry products can be easily shipped around the world through here. At the same time, this coastline is also an important channel for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to import grain, daily consumer goods, mechanical and electrical products and other materials.
Although the length of the coastline looks good, both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo are classified as quasi-landlocked countries because of the small proportion of their borders. The situation in both countries is not very good, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is still one of the least developed countries in the world, because it has insufficient access to the sea and political instability.
Although the Republic of the Congo's main exports include oil, timber, cocoa and coffee, it has not changed its status as a quasi-landlocked country.
In the 80s of the last century, Congo (Brazzaville) developed its economy on a large scale with oil exploitation, and its per capita GDP once exceeded 1,200 US dollars. However, the impact of international oil, domestic democratic reforms and civil war has brought the economy of the Republic of the Congo to a standstill and almost paralyzed.
It was not until around 2000 that the international oil industry began to recover and open up to the outside world, which reactivated the economy. In fact, the coastline has played a key role in the development of Congo (Brazzaville), without which the country's economy would have been even more difficult.
However, the status of a "quasi-landlocked country" also limits the economic development of Congo to a certain extent.
The Republic of Togo is a "suffocating" part of Africa because of its already short coastline and the fact that it is partially occupied by neighbouring Benin. However, this is not something that Togo can decide on its own, but it is demarcated by the colonizers.
Although this situation is unsatisfactory, the African countries have basically demarcated their borders according to the original borders after the colonizers left, so Togo can only accept this reality.
Although Togo's coastline is short and straight, it at least allows goods to face the ocean, making it easy to import and export. Togo encourages imports and exports**, which account for about 70% of the country's GDP.
However, since its main exporters, such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and other neighbouring countries, do not need to use its coastline, the shortness of the coastline affects Togo's economic development despite the presence of ports.
To this day, Togo remains one of the least developed countries declared by the United Nations.
Some countries have very short coastlines due to their geographical location, and they even go to war in order to get more coastlines. Iraq, for example. Iraq is a country that earns its wealth from oil, with the fourth largest oil reserves in the world, and it can be said that oil is the backbone of their fortune.
However, Iraq's coastline is only one section in the south-east, near the Persian Gulf, which is about 60 kilometres long, and occupies only 1 of its borders6%。For a country dependent on oil exports, such a coastline is clearly not enough.
Iraq's 60-kilometre coastline, despite its length, has few suitable locations for ports. The Shatt al-Arab leads directly to the Persian Gulf, but the water depth is very shallow due to the impact plains formed by the river's estuary, making it unsuitable for the creation of ports.
Even if a port is established, it is not conducive to the entry and exit of large ships. Moreover, it is very close to Iran, and if you are not careful, the ship will sail into Iranian territorial waters. On the other side of the sea, Iraq is next to two Kuwaiti islands, and even if it goes out to sea from the west, it will also accidentally drive into someone else's territorial waters.
As a result, this stretch of Iraq's coastline is not really of much value, and its oil exports are dependent on river ports, which greatly limits its ability to export oil.
Iraq's coastline dreams have not been realized, and life of grievance continues; Although Jordan has no coastline on the map, it still has 26 kilometers, which accounts for 1 of the border6% and strive to expand.
Jordan, a country that originally had no coastline, finally had 26 kilometers of coastline through a series of territorial exchanges and negotiations. Although this stretch of coastline is short, it is located in the Gulf of Aqaba and is an important transshipment port for Jordan's goods, which is superior to Iraq's real access to the sea.
Iraq's cargo is mainly transited through the Gulf of Aqaba to Europe, so Jordan's 26-kilometre coastline has a significant influence in the Middle East. Although Jordan is a "quasi-landlocked country", this does not prevent it from deriving economic benefits from this stretch of coastline.
From this perspective, Jordan's attachment to this stretch of coastline makes sense. As for other "quasi-landlocked countries", we should not rely too much on the coastline, but should give full play to our own advantages to promote economic development and benefit people's livelihood.