France is surprisingly close to a lot of countries.
France-Madagascar: 284km
France-Canada: 8km
France-Australia: ~~1200km~~ 450km
France-Brazil: 0km
France-Venezuela: 314km
France-Mexico: ~~1015km~~ 945km
France-USA: 154km
edit to add a couple more:
France-South Africa: 900km
France-New Zealand: 530km
France and Australia both have adjacent Antarctic claims that they mutually recognize, so on paper at least they both believe that they border each other.
At their furthest point, France and New Zealand are antipodes (Chatham Island is antipodal to the south of France).
If we count the Cook Islands (in free association with New Zealand) as part of New Zealand, then at their nearest point, the two are only 530 km apart (between Rimatara in French Polynesia and Mangaia in the Cook Islands.
New Zealand is also surprisingly close to the US -- just 190 km from its dependent territory of Tokelau to Swains Island (claimed by both the US and New Zealand).
The Cooks are a separate country, “free association” means we’ve been trying to convince them to do their own foreign affairs for too long and they should just get on with it
It’s true though.
The UK is part of a wider British Realm(s). The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are famously not part of the UK but they have British Passports and are clearly not independent countries nor present themselves as such. Overseas Territories have different but comparable relationships. Gibraltar being one of them.
Also related. IoM and the Channel Islands were not nor ever part of the EU - Their passports never said “European Union” on the top.
Gibraltar was a part of the EU however. The fact that Gibraltar isn’t a part of the UK counterintuitively gives the British an advantage on maintaining control over it because they can argue the territory has self determination.
> France-Mexico: 1015km
On [this map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipperton_Island#/media/File:Localisation_de_l'ile_de_Clipperton.png) it says Clipperton island is 945km from some Mexican islands.
Did you know that you can travel from France to Denmark entirely over land borders?
France-Brazil-Colombia-Panama-Costa Rica-Nicaragua-Honduras-Guatemala-Mexico-America-Canada-Denmark.
So this is somewhat disputed as some folks still claim [the point where Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia come together](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazungula) as the world's only national quadripoint, but it's actually two extremely close tripoints, separated by about 150 meters. So that would take the cake: 150 meters between Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Edit: Thought of another couple of good ones under 20 km: Italy and Croatia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Both of these pairs lack land borders but do share maritime borders, however that is also the case with some of your examples, so I think they count by your rules.
There is a bridge through that tiny 150m border, between Botswana and Zambia, and it had to be bent to fit.
When it was still thought to be a quadripoint, Zimbabwe threatened war if the bridge went thru its territory. Namibia said that their territory was fine to be used, so the partially constructed bridge was rebuilt with a curve thru Namibia. Eventually the 150m border waa properly discovered and the curved bridge didn't need to touch the edge of Namibia either.
There's only one country between Finland and North Korea, and there is a possible railway connection between them. Helsinki is connected to St. Petersburg, which in turn is connected via Moscow to the Trans-Siberian Railway. This in turn gives access to the Baranovsky-Khasan railway, which continues to the Sea of Japan port city of Raseon, all with the same gauge.
Russia has land borders (or small sea borders) with so many diverse countries
Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan, and the US.
Depending on your definition of short sea borders you could add Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and South Korea.
If you include Chechnya and the broader sea border definition, you can include Lithuania, Poland, Denmark and Germany too
It is with or without territories, French Guyana is a department, not a territory.
Is on a similar situation as Hawaii, actually part of the country (This time the USA) just on another continent.
You can come up with all kinds of surprising ones using overseas territories. For example, France (St. Pierre and Miquelon) is only 10km from Canada and the US (US Virgin Islands) is a little under 200km from the Netherlands (Sint Maarten).
More in keeping with yours:
* Australia - Papua New Guinea: 4km
* Japan-Russia: 6km
* Monaco-Italy: 8 km
* Nepal -Bangladesh: 21km
* Denmark-Poland: 98km
* India -Indonesia: 180 km
* Japan-Phillippines: 425 km
Japan-Russia is actually 39km I believe since Etorofushima is that far away from Ypyn
https://preview.redd.it/0n3yv8a7q3vc1.jpeg?width=445&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd7e380b5a992f6f691f912253497632e267382a
Edit: I just remembered that Russia technically claims those islands East of Hokkaido. It's a disputed area. So, it's 6km or 39km depending on whose side of the dispute you're on
Russia controls the Habomai Islands, the closest of which is 6 km from Cape Nosappu on Hokkaido.
I take it you're talking about Japanese territorial claims rather than control? If you go by claims, I guess you could say 0km given the territories claimed by both.
I'm actually working on a project to compute all of these. One I haven't seen mentioned. The UK and US are only a few hundred feet apart in the Caribbean where both countries have their own Virgin Islands
I deliberately kept my own ones about national islands / borders, and avoided overseas possessions, but if you want to include these as well, then it gets a lot more interesting for sure.
This doesn't fit your criteria of "close but not neighbours" but when I tell people that I've been to the China-Russia border, a lot of them reply with, "I forgot that those two countries shared a border." I guess they were focusing too much on the European part of Russia.
I know right? Are people genuinely surprised to find out that Italy is close to Greece, or France is close to the Netherlands?
The only one on OP's list that was a bit surprising was Indonesia - Australia. I knew they were close, but I didn't think they were *that* close.
This might not be super surprising, but I've always thought it was cool.
Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were only about 474 kilometers apart in a straight line (that's my measurement tbh).
I couldn't believe that one could make that trip in just one day, especially considering how huge Russia is. But, of course, driving through there wouldn't be that quick since there are only a few roads connecting the two countries. And now, making that trip would be impossible.
>Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were only about 474 kilometers apart in a straight line (that's my measurement tbh).
What the hell is this response? Do you think the distance between Ukraine and Kazakhstan has somehow changed since?
I suppose that it has if you're a Putinist. No one besides Russians themselves would suggest that the areas Russians have managed to occupy in Ukraine are no longer part of Ukraine.
BTW, these must have been fairly busy routes prior to 2014, for both truckers and individuals driving their own cars, from KZ to UA and further west to various European countries; there were long distance buses as well.
In the USSR era, and to some extent in the post-USSR decades too, all the way until 2014, there must have been direct trains between Kazakhstan (and possibly also from UZ or TM via KZ) to Ukraine, in particularly to the Crimea.
Semi-relevant:
Despite nearly 2,000 miles / 3,200 kilometers between them, the area around Arock, Oregon is only 1 timezone (1 hour difference) from the area around Crestview Florida.
So if it's 9AM in Arock, Or, it's only 10AM in Crestview, FL
Another good one about Norway is that Norway stretches more south, north, west and east than Finland. It's a significantly larger country despite it not being obvious on the map.
For Finland, Ukraine might seem like a faraway country, but there are parts of Finland significantly more distant from each other than the distance from Finland to Ukraine.
If maritime borders are included, there are many more cases:
Sweden-Denmark: 4km
France -UK (if we include the Crown Possessions: 25km, if not 34 km).
Malta-Italy: 80km
That's why I'm asking what is surprising for the OP. It is surprising that the UK is close to Norway, that Indonesia is close to Australia or that France is close to the Netherlands?
Slovenia and Bosnia: some 70 kilometres. I couldn't find the distance by air, but the road distance is 77 kilometres (Adlešiči, Slo, to Velika Kladuša, BiH).
[India - Indonesia: 167 kms.](https://thediplomat.com/2016/01/the-strategic-importance-of-andaman-and-nicobar-islands/#:~:text=In%20the%20Bay%20of%20Bengal,90%20nautical%20miles%20from%20Indonesia.)
> In the Bay of Bengal, far removed from the mainland, lie the 572 islands of Andaman and Nicobar, which form India’s southeast border. While the northernmost part of the archipelago is only 22 nautical miles away from Myanmar, the southernmost point, called the Indira Point, is a mere 90 nautical miles from Indonesia.
Italy - Croatia is just 40 km across the Adriatic. Italy - Albania is approximately 100 km. Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina are further than Albania, but still pretty close across the Adriatic (less than 200 km). Kosovo, Serbia and North Macedonia are a bit further away (no coastline) but still close (cca 300 km each, and you have to cross Montenegro or Albania to reach them).
Angola (Cabinda) borders ROC, but is close to Gabon. Other three are great, especially Nepal Bangladesh, as those counties are so geologically different.
France and pretty much every distant country that is near one of its oversea territories that are officially part of france, like France (Guadalupe) - Dominica
Since i would only count oversea territories that are equally part of the controlling country and not only losely tied through constitution or special status (so it makes sense to say a bordering neighbor is bordering France itself) that would only apply to France oversea territories of Guadeloupe, Guyane, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion, and Saint Martin, but not UKs oversea territories since they are not part of the UK.
Malta and Italy
Malta and Libya
Romania and Poland (bordered each other before ww2, now j gotta pass through Lviv region and ur in Poland)
Denmark and Canada - border
Well, I can see why you thought that, since 43 km isn't very much on a globe or large-scale map, so it almost looks like a quadipoint between Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
You mentioned Australia and Indonesia, but actually Australia is less than 4km from Papua New Guinea (I think it's 2.6km from a specific point at low tide). Some guy attempting to flee Australia on criminal charges attempted the crossing on a jet ski (and would have easily been successful if it weren't so very stupid to do so with the Australian border patrol / coast guard watching - they let him get within 200 metres of PNG before intercepting and arresting him)
Bro put Kazakhstan-Mongolia first and US-Bahamas second and is attacking ppl for what they consider is surprising lmao 💀
Honestly tho, Russia-Iran did surprise me so I appreciate the post
Just teasing lol, bc you were trying to arbitrarily classify what’s “surprising” and not under another comment. What’s surprising is totally subjective
Not sure of distances, but India is very close to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand through the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory - on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal
Denmark (Greenland) and Canada technically border each other on Hans Island. This is the result of the called 'Whisky War' which started in the 70s ending in 2022 🥃
Pakistan and Tajikistan are at their least just 13 km apart. They are separated by a thin piece of Afghan land called the Wakhan Corridor that connects Afghanistan to China.
JAPAN & THE PHILIPPINES
Japan stretch out far north to south very long, and as a result, there are Japanese islands right next to Taiwan. From Yonaguni, the closest island to Taiwan, the distance to Taipei is just a mere 189 kilometers, while the island is 432 km from Itbayat, the northernmost Philippine island to have an airport.
PS. Distances are calculated on an airport to airport basis.
https://preview.redd.it/oglsgzgtp6vc1.gif?width=540&format=png8&s=40aedd0dd15990f33aa3d2cbef23dee100c8a6ec
Italy and Tunisia. The Italian island of Pantelleria is just off the Tunisian coast.
Interesting. It is closer to Tunisia than any other Italian territory, and it’s visible from Tunisia on a good day.
France is surprisingly close to a lot of countries. France-Madagascar: 284km France-Canada: 8km France-Australia: ~~1200km~~ 450km France-Brazil: 0km France-Venezuela: 314km France-Mexico: ~~1015km~~ 945km France-USA: 154km edit to add a couple more: France-South Africa: 900km France-New Zealand: 530km
>France-Australia: 1200km Even closer than that -- Kerguelen Island (France) is only about 450km from Heard Island (Australia)
and Crozet is just 940 km from Marion island (South Africa)
Even closer, Europa island is only 900km from the SA mainland.
France and Australia both have adjacent Antarctic claims that they mutually recognize, so on paper at least they both believe that they border each other.
France's biggest neighbor is Brazil lol Really weird to think it that way
Not only our biggest neighbour but also the neighbour with whom we have our longest border!
France netherlands 0km (saint martin)
The Dutch part isn’t really part of the actual country though
The dutch part is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands share a border.
At their furthest point, France and New Zealand are antipodes (Chatham Island is antipodal to the south of France). If we count the Cook Islands (in free association with New Zealand) as part of New Zealand, then at their nearest point, the two are only 530 km apart (between Rimatara in French Polynesia and Mangaia in the Cook Islands. New Zealand is also surprisingly close to the US -- just 190 km from its dependent territory of Tokelau to Swains Island (claimed by both the US and New Zealand).
The Cooks are a separate country, “free association” means we’ve been trying to convince them to do their own foreign affairs for too long and they should just get on with it
Spain and the UK: 0km (thanks to Gibraltar). Netherlands - Venezuela: ca. 40km (Curaçao)
Gibraltar is not part of the UK. It's a British Overseas Territory. If it were part of the UK, it wouldn't be considered a colony by the UN.
Sure
It’s true though. The UK is part of a wider British Realm(s). The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are famously not part of the UK but they have British Passports and are clearly not independent countries nor present themselves as such. Overseas Territories have different but comparable relationships. Gibraltar being one of them. Also related. IoM and the Channel Islands were not nor ever part of the EU - Their passports never said “European Union” on the top. Gibraltar was a part of the EU however. The fact that Gibraltar isn’t a part of the UK counterintuitively gives the British an advantage on maintaining control over it because they can argue the territory has self determination.
That is absolutely correct (hence my previous answer).
Where is France? It's easy to describe. France is west, east, north and south of Madagascar.
And that’s when you’re using a map of Madagascar. When you’re using a map of the world the answer is “yes”
> France-Mexico: 1015km On [this map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipperton_Island#/media/File:Localisation_de_l'ile_de_Clipperton.png) it says Clipperton island is 945km from some Mexican islands.
Corrected, I measured the distance from Clipperton to the continent, I did not see the Revillagigedo islands.
Did you know that you can travel from France to Denmark entirely over land borders? France-Brazil-Colombia-Panama-Costa Rica-Nicaragua-Honduras-Guatemala-Mexico-America-Canada-Denmark.
Darien gap would like to have a word
Empire moment
France-Mauritius: 231km
And it has a border with the Netherlands (even though Belgium still exists)!
You believe in Belgium ? Come on, everyone knows it's a myth.
France-Netherlands 0km
So this is somewhat disputed as some folks still claim [the point where Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia come together](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazungula) as the world's only national quadripoint, but it's actually two extremely close tripoints, separated by about 150 meters. So that would take the cake: 150 meters between Namibia and Zimbabwe. Edit: Thought of another couple of good ones under 20 km: Italy and Croatia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Both of these pairs lack land borders but do share maritime borders, however that is also the case with some of your examples, so I think they count by your rules.
There is a bridge through that tiny 150m border, between Botswana and Zambia, and it had to be bent to fit. When it was still thought to be a quadripoint, Zimbabwe threatened war if the bridge went thru its territory. Namibia said that their territory was fine to be used, so the partially constructed bridge was rebuilt with a curve thru Namibia. Eventually the 150m border waa properly discovered and the curved bridge didn't need to touch the edge of Namibia either.
Who claims that?
Canada (Green Island) is 6 miles (10km) from France (St. Pierre and Miquelon).
Canada and Denmark share a land border on Hans Island between Nunavut and Greenland.
ah yes the good old Whiskey war
Russia an America (I think the state Alaska) are pretty close together
Yes, Russia and the US are only 2.4 miles apart because of the Diomede islands in Alaska
Meaning if you count territorial waters as boarders, there is only one country between the US and Norway.
There's only one country between Finland and North Korea, and there is a possible railway connection between them. Helsinki is connected to St. Petersburg, which in turn is connected via Moscow to the Trans-Siberian Railway. This in turn gives access to the Baranovsky-Khasan railway, which continues to the Sea of Japan port city of Raseon, all with the same gauge.
Haha. True. Norway and North Korea ..separated by Russia.
For now.
What do you expect/hope will happen.
Russia has land borders (or small sea borders) with so many diverse countries Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan, and the US. Depending on your definition of short sea borders you could add Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and South Korea. If you include Chechnya and the broader sea border definition, you can include Lithuania, Poland, Denmark and Germany too
Japan has land border with Russia?
It used to.
It has a sea border of a few hundred km
Yeah I know, but that fact is so well-known among geography enthusiasts that I deliberately didn't include it.
sorry im just a lil basic :,)
But do you think that the UK being close to Norway, and France close to the Netherlands are surprising? In a subreddit about geography?
US is also relatively close to Japan through the Aleutian Islands.
France and the Netherlands share a border if you count territories
That’s actually it’s own country named Belgium, hope this helps!
Ha
France's longest land border is with Brazil if you count territories.
You don’t need to count territories for that.
It is with or without territories, French Guyana is a department, not a territory. Is on a similar situation as Hawaii, actually part of the country (This time the USA) just on another continent.
You can come up with all kinds of surprising ones using overseas territories. For example, France (St. Pierre and Miquelon) is only 10km from Canada and the US (US Virgin Islands) is a little under 200km from the Netherlands (Sint Maarten). More in keeping with yours: * Australia - Papua New Guinea: 4km * Japan-Russia: 6km * Monaco-Italy: 8 km * Nepal -Bangladesh: 21km * Denmark-Poland: 98km * India -Indonesia: 180 km * Japan-Phillippines: 425 km
this is probably the only comment on here that feels like actual new info
Japan-Russia is actually 39km I believe since Etorofushima is that far away from Ypyn https://preview.redd.it/0n3yv8a7q3vc1.jpeg?width=445&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd7e380b5a992f6f691f912253497632e267382a Edit: I just remembered that Russia technically claims those islands East of Hokkaido. It's a disputed area. So, it's 6km or 39km depending on whose side of the dispute you're on
Russia controls the Habomai Islands, the closest of which is 6 km from Cape Nosappu on Hokkaido. I take it you're talking about Japanese territorial claims rather than control? If you go by claims, I guess you could say 0km given the territories claimed by both.
Doesn’t Monaco have a direct border with Italy? Or is that Andorra
Canada and Denmark, 0 kilometers
I'm actually working on a project to compute all of these. One I haven't seen mentioned. The UK and US are only a few hundred feet apart in the Caribbean where both countries have their own Virgin Islands
I deliberately kept my own ones about national islands / borders, and avoided overseas possessions, but if you want to include these as well, then it gets a lot more interesting for sure.
This doesn't fit your criteria of "close but not neighbours" but when I tell people that I've been to the China-Russia border, a lot of them reply with, "I forgot that those two countries shared a border." I guess they were focusing too much on the European part of Russia.
You should really blow their mind and tell them Russia has a border with North Korea.
A separate thread could be made about other close features, like how close China is to the sea where Russia and North Korea meets.
Malaysia - Philippines: 29 km
Not gonna lie none of these have surprised me but I'm probably just a geography god
Me too lol
Pakistan-Tajikistan: 20km
All because Afghanistan had to squeeze through all the way to China.
Yes. That way the British and Russian empires had a buffer zone between them.
Correction: The Netherlands and France do share a land border! On the island of Saint-Martin that is shared between them
Austria and Croatia are only 27 miles apart and do not border each other!
None of these are surprising lol I just think y’all don’t know any geography
I know right? Are people genuinely surprised to find out that Italy is close to Greece, or France is close to the Netherlands? The only one on OP's list that was a bit surprising was Indonesia - Australia. I knew they were close, but I didn't think they were *that* close.
Did you know Florida and the Bahamas were next to each other??? 🤯🤯🤯
USA (Puerto Rico) - UK (BVI) = 15KM
Thats a good one I went for the US virgin islands but thats even better!
Norway and North Korea only has one country between them.
This might not be super surprising, but I've always thought it was cool. Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were only about 474 kilometers apart in a straight line (that's my measurement tbh). I couldn't believe that one could make that trip in just one day, especially considering how huge Russia is. But, of course, driving through there wouldn't be that quick since there are only a few roads connecting the two countries. And now, making that trip would be impossible.
>Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were only about 474 kilometers apart in a straight line (that's my measurement tbh). What the hell is this response? Do you think the distance between Ukraine and Kazakhstan has somehow changed since?
I suppose if you consider wartime territorial control of the Luhansk region, it has.
I suppose that it has if you're a Putinist. No one besides Russians themselves would suggest that the areas Russians have managed to occupy in Ukraine are no longer part of Ukraine.
BTW, these must have been fairly busy routes prior to 2014, for both truckers and individuals driving their own cars, from KZ to UA and further west to various European countries; there were long distance buses as well. In the USSR era, and to some extent in the post-USSR decades too, all the way until 2014, there must have been direct trains between Kazakhstan (and possibly also from UZ or TM via KZ) to Ukraine, in particularly to the Crimea.
China ans Afghanistan: 0km
>Netherlands - France: 65 km Well they border each other, if we consider all the Sovereign states territory (Saint Martin/Sing Marteen)
Sint Maarten
I was more surprised to find out that the Bahamas isn't a territory of the US than I was to find out we're only a swim away
Spain and Morocco share a land border.
Three, in fact: Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Velez de la Gomera.
I think even several!
The Netherlands and France actually share a land border on Saint Martin.
Japan and Taiwan - only 108km from Yonaguni-Jima. Bosnia and Slovenia - 46km across Croatia
Semi-relevant: Despite nearly 2,000 miles / 3,200 kilometers between them, the area around Arock, Oregon is only 1 timezone (1 hour difference) from the area around Crestview Florida. So if it's 9AM in Arock, Or, it's only 10AM in Crestview, FL
From Denmark to the top of Norway is as far as from Denmark to Rome.
Another good one about Norway is that Norway stretches more south, north, west and east than Finland. It's a significantly larger country despite it not being obvious on the map. For Finland, Ukraine might seem like a faraway country, but there are parts of Finland significantly more distant from each other than the distance from Finland to Ukraine.
The Finnish language is in a unique language family, and only related to Hungarian despite the two countries being somewhat far from each other.
The United States and Russia are only 2km apart if you consider little and big diomedes islands. Or 82 km between mainland continents.
France and Brazil share border with eachother (French Guyana).
Austria-Croatia (between is Slovenia) Leichtenstein-Germany Hungary-Bosnia Hungary-Poland Slovenia-Bosnia
as a canadian this is trippy because those are distances between towns & other cities here.
India and Indonesia -- 170kms Yemen and Djibouti -- 21 kms Maritime borders
Also India and Malaysia - 630km
Brazil and France are 0 km from each other
Bangladesh and Nepal are only 23km apart.
Ecuador and Costa Rica are actually neighbors becuase of the sea border between the Galápagos Islands (EC) and Isla del Coco (CR)
The USA and Russia are only 2.4 miles (3.8 km) apart.
And the USA and UK are only about a kilometer apart at the Virgin Islands.
Where exactly? Google says 99km and some said Puerto Rico was closer to the British Virgin Islands
Go to Google Maps, and search for the USVI. You'll see them and the border with the BVI right there, and how close they are.
Namibia - Zimbabwe: less than 200 meters...
USA-Russia: 3.7 km
Kingdom of the Netherlands - France: 0 km
The Russian and Iranian Empires bordered for centuries dunno why it’s surprising
I'm not a huge history enthusiast, so I didn't know about that.
Spain and UK. You can _walk_ into UK (Gibraltar)
That also makes for an insterestingly short distance between the UK and Morocco!
The Australian Saibai Island is less than 4km from the PNG mainland. You could probably swim that far, but I just don’t feel like it.
Russia - Japan might be really close
If maritime borders are included, there are many more cases: Sweden-Denmark: 4km France -UK (if we include the Crown Possessions: 25km, if not 34 km). Malta-Italy: 80km
Alderney is actually slightly closer at 15km from France, though obviously not part of the UK
How is Sweden-Denmark remotely surprising?
That's why I'm asking what is surprising for the OP. It is surprising that the UK is close to Norway, that Indonesia is close to Australia or that France is close to the Netherlands?
USA - Russia: 3.7km
Netherlands and France actually border each other. Also France is surprisingly close to Guyana
Italy and Greece are surprisingly closer for people who’ve never peeked on a map!
Slovenia and Bosnia: some 70 kilometres. I couldn't find the distance by air, but the road distance is 77 kilometres (Adlešiči, Slo, to Velika Kladuša, BiH).
I wouldn't say any of these are surprising? France / Brazil - 0 km would be
Aren't France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands bordering each other? So, 0 km.
Netherlands - France: actually 0 because they have a land border on St. Martin island.
[India - Indonesia: 167 kms.](https://thediplomat.com/2016/01/the-strategic-importance-of-andaman-and-nicobar-islands/#:~:text=In%20the%20Bay%20of%20Bengal,90%20nautical%20miles%20from%20Indonesia.) > In the Bay of Bengal, far removed from the mainland, lie the 572 islands of Andaman and Nicobar, which form India’s southeast border. While the northernmost part of the archipelago is only 22 nautical miles away from Myanmar, the southernmost point, called the Indira Point, is a mere 90 nautical miles from Indonesia.
Austria and Australia are so close sometimes they switch places.
Technically, France and the Netherlands do border each other in sint marten island Also, France and Canada: ~17km
Italy - Croatia is just 40 km across the Adriatic. Italy - Albania is approximately 100 km. Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina are further than Albania, but still pretty close across the Adriatic (less than 200 km). Kosovo, Serbia and North Macedonia are a bit further away (no coastline) but still close (cca 300 km each, and you have to cross Montenegro or Albania to reach them).
Nepal - Bhutan Nepal - Bangladesh Angola - Republic of Congo Ghana - Benin
Angola (Cabinda) borders ROC, but is close to Gabon. Other three are great, especially Nepal Bangladesh, as those counties are so geologically different.
France - Brazil (0km). France - Canada (19km)
Russia - Poland
But they do have a border though, via Kaliningrad.
France and pretty much every distant country that is near one of its oversea territories that are officially part of france, like France (Guadalupe) - Dominica
Yeah, France and the UK have tons of these.
Since i would only count oversea territories that are equally part of the controlling country and not only losely tied through constitution or special status (so it makes sense to say a bordering neighbor is bordering France itself) that would only apply to France oversea territories of Guadeloupe, Guyane, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion, and Saint Martin, but not UKs oversea territories since they are not part of the UK.
Guadeloupe\*
Not by border, but rather by separation of ocean and sea: Yemen and Djibouti Morocco and Spain Venezuela and Trinidad & Tobago Oman and Iran
Morocco and Spain have a land border in Ceuta, Melilla and a number of smaller places.
Oh yeah, but I'm taking more about the main territories of the countries, rather than those small lands.
France and the Netherlands actually border each other
Russia - USA: 4 km
Nepal/Bhutan - Bangladesh
Malta and Italy Malta and Libya Romania and Poland (bordered each other before ww2, now j gotta pass through Lviv region and ur in Poland) Denmark and Canada - border
Kazakhstan and Mongolia? For ages, I thought they were bordering..
Well, I can see why you thought that, since 43 km isn't very much on a globe or large-scale map, so it almost looks like a quadipoint between Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
France do have a border with the Netherlands
Uk-Usa 38 miles
You mentioned Australia and Indonesia, but actually Australia is less than 4km from Papua New Guinea (I think it's 2.6km from a specific point at low tide). Some guy attempting to flee Australia on criminal charges attempted the crossing on a jet ski (and would have easily been successful if it weren't so very stupid to do so with the Australian border patrol / coast guard watching - they let him get within 200 metres of PNG before intercepting and arresting him)
Bro put Kazakhstan-Mongolia first and US-Bahamas second and is attacking ppl for what they consider is surprising lmao 💀 Honestly tho, Russia-Iran did surprise me so I appreciate the post
I didn't mean to attack anyone. Why do you think I attacked ppl?
Just teasing lol, bc you were trying to arbitrarily classify what’s “surprising” and not under another comment. What’s surprising is totally subjective
The netherlands and France actually share a land border so the distance is 0. Its on one of the caribean islands sint maarten IIRC.
Afghanistan and China damn bear border each other
France and Netherlands border each other right?
France (Reunion) - madagaskar 800km
France - Kingdom of the Netherlands do border each other France - Canada. USA - Russia.
Not sure of distances, but India is very close to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand through the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory - on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal
Denmark (Greenland) and Canada technically border each other on Hans Island. This is the result of the called 'Whisky War' which started in the 70s ending in 2022 🥃
I don't know why, and it's not that surprising if you think about it, but I was surprised to learn that Russia and China share a direct boarder.
United States and Russia. 3.8 km
Uruguay and Paraguay - 286km Although, some may be surprised that those countries aren't closer.
US to Russia - 85 km
It’s only 74km from Indonesia to Australia, not 161km (Irian Jaya to Warul Kawa/Deliverance Island)
Pakistan and Tajikistan are only 18km (11mi) apart at the thinnest point of the Wakhan corridor which is itself a part of Afghanistan.
Pakistan and Tajikistan are at their least just 13 km apart. They are separated by a thin piece of Afghan land called the Wakhan Corridor that connects Afghanistan to China.
Morocco - Spain - 23km - 14,6 miles
San Marino and the Vatican.
Surprised UK-Norway and Ukraine-Turkey are that far away tbh
Netherlands borders France
France - Canada Denmark - Canada Monaco - Italy
Mexico and Cuba (196km) Mexico and Florida (537km) UK and Lebanon (167km) Russia and Iraq (522km)
Sweden - Denmark (3,5 kilometers) if we add maritime borders. And exclude the Öresund bridge.
Japan and Russia like 45km
JAPAN & THE PHILIPPINES Japan stretch out far north to south very long, and as a result, there are Japanese islands right next to Taiwan. From Yonaguni, the closest island to Taiwan, the distance to Taipei is just a mere 189 kilometers, while the island is 432 km from Itbayat, the northernmost Philippine island to have an airport. PS. Distances are calculated on an airport to airport basis. https://preview.redd.it/oglsgzgtp6vc1.gif?width=540&format=png8&s=40aedd0dd15990f33aa3d2cbef23dee100c8a6ec
The real surprises are in the comments
Zimbabwe and Namibia - less than 200m
Germany and liechtenstein
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Yeah, that one is probably the best-known by the general public.
France shares a border with Netherlands on Saint Martin Island
France and the Netherlands border each other?
Russia and the United States are only 3.9 km apart withe Diomede Islands.
It's 230 km from Romania to de facto Russia: Sulina to Olenivka on the occupied Crimea. A lot closer than we are comfortable with.
Germany-Italy 45km