Oceania

The Pacific Islands Forum seats French Polynesia, New Caledonia, the Cook Islands and Niue as full members alongside sovereign states, and this catalogue records all four as territories of France or of New Zealand. It holds 25 places in Oceania, across Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, and the water between them is the larger part of what they share.

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25 countries

Common questions

Questions about Oceania

How many countries in Oceania are independent?

Fourteen are sovereign states and eleven are dependencies, recorded in the roster under France, the United States, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Are the Cook Islands and Niue countries?

The catalogue records both as dependencies of New Zealand. The Pacific Islands Forum seats both as full members alongside sovereign states, and the record notes the arrangement rather than ruling on it.

What are Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia?

Three groupings of Pacific islands older than the states within them and used by those states themselves. The catalogue adds Australasia for Australia, New Zealand and Norfolk Island.