Oceanian Countries

Oceanian Countries

This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Oceania. Although it is mostly ocean and spans many continental plates, Oceania is often defined as a continent. This list follows the boundaries of geopolitical Oceania, which includes Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Australasia. The main continental landmass of Oceania is Australia, with the second largest being Zealandia.

The division between Asia and Oceania is not clearly defined. The Malay Archipelago is sometimes included in a wider geographical definition of Oceania.{ For political reasons, the United Nations considers the border is between the two regions to be the Indonesian–Papua New Guineaian border. Papua New Guinea is occasionally considered Asian due to its virtue of neighbouring Indonesia, but this is rare, and it is generally accepted to be part of Oceania. If the entire Malay archipelago is included as part of Oceania, then Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor are also included.