evidence: Those territories do not face immediate threats. However, territorial disputes generate long-term challenges to the integrity of one million square kilometers of its EEZ. In the Pacific Ocean, Matthew and Hunter Islands, administered by New Caledonia but claimed by neighboring Vanuatu, generate an EEZ of 350,000 square kilometers.[3] One such example of direct challenge to French legal rights in the country’s EEZ is a 2004 case in which the French Navy intercepted a Taiwanese fishing boat, which claimed that it was in a fishing zone authorized by the government of Vanuatu.[4] In 2017, France responded to an illegal campaign by Vietnamese fishing boats in the EEZ of New Caledonia, leading to three judicial condemnations in Nouméa.[5] In the Indian Ocean, France has a territorial dispute with Madagascar regarding the Scattered Islands – four islands which generate 640,000 square kilometers of EEZ for France in the Mozambique Channel, and that were attached to French overseas territories by a decree by President Charles de Gaulle in 1960, two months before the independence of Madagascar from France.[6] [...] [3] Jean-Tenahe Faatau, "Pacifique: Querelle autour des îles Matthew et Hunter en Nouvelle Calédonie (Pacific: Quarrels around Matthew and Hunter Islands in New Caledonia)," Outremers 360°, March 13, 2019, https://outremers360.com/politique/pacifique-querelles-autour-des-iles-matthew-et-hunter-en-nouvelle-caledonie.