K
8, Ukraine 24, US 3)
registered in other countries: 8 (Panama 3, Portugal 1, Russia 4)
(2006)

Ports and terminals:
Marsaxlokk, Valletta

Military Malta

Military branches:
Armed Forces of Malta (AFM; includes air and maritime elements)
(2005)

Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
(2001)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 18-49: 90,651
females age 18-49: 87,047 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 74,525
females age 18-49: 71,333 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$38.168 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Malta

Disputes - international:
none

Illicit drugs:
minor transshipment point for hashish from North Africa to Western
Europe

This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007

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@Marshall Islands

Introduction Marshall Islands

Background:
After almost four decades under US administration as the
easternmost part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands,
the Marshall Islands attained independence in 1986 under a Compact
of Free Association. Compensation claims continue as a result of US
nuclear testing on some of the atolls between 1947 and 1962. The
Marshall Islands hosts the US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) Reagan
Missile Test Site, a key installation in the US missile defense
network.

Geography Marshall Islands

Location:
Oceania, two archipelagic island chains of 29 atolls, each made up
of many small islets, and five single islands in the North Pacific
Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia

Geographic coordinates:
9 00 N, 168 00 E

Map references:
Oceania

Area:
total: 11,854.3 sq km
land: 181.3 sq km
water: 11,673 sq km (note - lagoon waters)
note: includes the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Kwajalein, Majuro,
Rongelap, and Utirik

Area - comparative:
about the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
0 km

Coastline:
370.4 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
tropical; hot and humid; wet season May to November; islands border
typhoon belt

Terrain:
low coral limestone and sand islands

Ele