Here’s a picture of a little speck of an island in the Indian Ocean, called Tromelin island (its size is one square kilometer). Apparently a long-running dispute since 1976 between France and Mauritius (itself an island some 500 km to its south), has been settled. Tromelin will remain French. In 2010, then-French President Sarkozy, proposed that France retain sovereignty, but that France and Mauritius share ‘control’ of the island. But when it came to ratifying the agreement in French parliament this year, there was a little storm over the ‘loss of French territory’ and the agreement was rescinded.
The island is basically used for weather research. It does have a landing strip which could come in handy in times of war .. something that would be bad for the masked and red-footed boobies (sea birds) and sea turtles that made it their home. Oh! And I see Wikipedia indicates the island’s official currency is the Euro, and that the internet domain country code is .tf.
