Pacific nation Vanuatu takes on France in UN court over remote islands

Vanuatu's case focuses on Matthew Island and Hunter Island, two volcanic islands in the South Pacific some 300 kilometres (190 miles) east of the French territory of New Caledonia and south-east of Vanuatu.

While the islands are small and no one lives there, sovereignty over them also determines who controls the territorial waters surrounding them, which impacts fishing rights and exploitation of seabed resources.

In 2025 France and Vanuatu agreed to new rounds of bilateral negotiations about the islands and the demarcation of the maritime boundaries between the territories after two earlier rounds of talks in 2018 and 2019. Earlier this year Vanuatu said the new talks had reached an impasse and it would take its case to an international court.

The ICJ, the United Nations' highest court, deals with disputes between states and violations of international treaties. It often rules on disputes between countries about land and maritime boundaries.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg Editing by Gareth Jones)