[Quai]

Your comment is a good example of a strawman.

[Retric]

No, it’s a serious question as topologically they do border each other. So, are they arguing being able to sail from A to B is enough or must they be sailing across freshwater etc. Borders do get drawn across bodies of water all the time, but deciding if France and the UK border each other but Spain and Italy don’t is arbitrary.

[function_seven]

It's not arbitrary. You can get from France to UK without entering international waters, and without crossing waters controlled by another entity.

I don't think you can do that with Spain and Italy? To get from one to the other you'd have to go through French or Algerian waters I think.

And I might be agreeing with you; not sure here. Conversation went from rivers to lakes to "a coffee cup is the same as a donut" pretty quickly :)

[Someone]

Minorca and Sardinia give you a path that avoids other countries’ waters, it seems (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Hypothetical-200nm-l...)

[Retric]

Spain is the closest country to some parts of Italy. So, they limit each others economic exclusion zones. That said it’s close to 400 miles between them across open ocean. Further economic exclusion zones are a fairly recent and thus an arbitrary thing.

[kgwgk]

Land borders are also arbitrary.