Portugal plans to double its territory by claiming vast areas of the Atlantic
Date: Sun Feb 07 2021 ; Tags: Portugal
Portugal is a small country in Europe, being a fairly compact country at a distant corner of the European Union. That might make Portugal seem to be a lesser power, because it doesn't have the territory nor population from which to make itself a powerhouse. But Portugal's past is of a large far-flung empire - for example Brazil was a Portuguese colony at one time. By re-embracing its past as a sea-faring country, and utilizing its Atlantic Ocean islands to make territorial claims, Portugal hopes to give itself an economic engine.
The key is that Portugal has a multi-decade effort underway to establish an expanded territory. Portugal has two autonomous regions, the Madeira Archipelago and the Azores Archipelago. Those island chains allow Portugal to make claims on the surrounding seabed, the full extent of which is shown in the image above. The territory would comprise 4 million square kilometers.
This is another view of the same territory.
The way this works is based on conventions in the Law of the Sea.
Any country has direct full control over its immediately adjacent ocean. But the Law of the Sea also defines two additional zones of control.
The Exclusive Economic Zone (up to 370.4 kilometers) gives a country exclusive rights to explore and exploit marine resources. These rights are limited to beneath the surface of the sea. Any ship is allowed passage, but use of anything underwater is controlled by the country in question.
Additionally, the Extended Continental Shelf (up to 648 kilometers) gives a country exclusive rights to explore and exploit mineral and non-living resources on the sea floor. In this zone, the stuff in the water is fair game to everyone, but the ocean floor is under the control of the claiming country.
Portugal points out that this includes these sorts of resources. You'll notice that the Azores includes a large section of the mid-Atlantic ridge, where there is lots of minerals constantly spewing from the core of the planet. And there are plenty of other possible resources.