5 Countries That Are Much Closer To Each Other Than You Think

The 5 maps below are all examples of one country being separated from another by only 1 land border.

Norway & North Korea Are Separated By Just One Country

The map above shows that Norway and North Korea are separated only by Russia.

Russia has a 195.8 km land border with Norway and a 17.0 km land border with North Korea. Which means in theory you could get from one to the other by only passing through Russia.

The same would of course also be true of any of the other 12 countries that border Russia.

Here they all are in order of longest to shortest land borders:

1. Kazakhstan: 7,512.8 km
2.  China: 4,209.3 km
3.  Mongolia: 3,485 km
4.  Ukraine: 1925.8 km
5.  Finland: 1271.8 km
6.  Belarus: 1239 km
7.  Georgia: 572.5 km
8.  Azerbaijan: 327.6 km
9.  Latvia: 270.5 km
10.  Lithuania: 266 km
11.  Poland: 204.1 km
12.  Norway: 195.8 km
13.  Estonia: 138 km
14.  North Korea: 17km

Russia also has maritime borders with the US (49.0 km) and Japan (194.3 km).

See: Did You Know Russia & The United States Are Just 2 Miles Apart In The Diomede Islands

Germany & Canada Are Separated By Just One Country

Now before looking at the map above you might have thought that you could get to Canada from Germany just by passing through France to the via Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

But they only share a maritime border with Canada, not a land one.

Canada is somewhat famous for sharing the world’s longest border with the United State: 8,891 km (5,525 mi) long. And from 1949 (once Newfoundland joined Canada) until 2022, the US was the only country to share a land border with Canada.

However, in 2022 the Canadian and Danish Governments agreed to split Hans Island (see arrow above), between the two countries, which means they now share a roughly 1.28 km (0.795 miles) long border.

Denmark only has one other land border with Germany 68 km (42 mi).

Although you could argue Denmark has a sort of land border with Sweden via the Øresund Bridge, which has a width of 23.5 metres (77.1 ft).

In any case, this also means that you could get from the US to Denmark via just one country, but probably the less the Americans know or think about the better (for both Canada and Denmark).

Germany & Brazil Are Separated By Just One Country

This time the route is through France, via French Guiana. Again this means any country that borders France is just one country away from Brazil.

In fact. France’s longest border is not with any European country but Brazil at 730 km (454 mi).

Here they are ranked:

1. Brazil: 730 km (454 mi)
2. Spain: 646 km (401 mi)
3. Belgium 556 km (345 mi)
4. Suriname: 556 km (345 mi)
5. Switzerland: 525 km (326 mi)
6. Italy: 476 km (296 mi)
7. Germany: 418 km (260 mi)
8. Luxembourg: 69 km (43 mi)
9.  Andorra: 55 km (34 mi)
10. Monaco: 6 km (4 mi)

Finally you could also get from the Netherlands to Brazil via France even though the two of them don’t share a European border. But the two countries do share a border a 16 km (10 mi) on the Caribbean island of Saint-Martin.

See: Saint Martin – The Smallest Inhabited Island Divided Between Two Countries

Also see: Map Of The Longest Land Border For Each European Country

In terms of getting to France from South America you could go through Suriname, but this only affects Guyana.

The other option is Brazil, which means the you can get from the following countries and France are separated by just one country:

1. Bolivia: 3,423 km
2.  Peru: 2,995 km
3.  Venezuela: 2,200 km
4.  Colombia: 1,644 km
5.  Guyana: 1,606 km
6.  Paraguay: 1,365 km
7.  Argentina: 1,261 km
8.  Uruguay: 1,068 km
9.  France (French Guiana): 730 km
10.  Suriname: 593 km

Vietnam & Afghanistan Are Separated By Just One Country

I though the fact above was somewhat interesting as Vietnam and Afghanistan are two of the worst failures of American foreign policy since World War 2.

At least with Iraq, they managed to get rid of Saddam Hussein. But the Communist Party of Vietnam continues to run the entire united country of Vietnam and the Taliban have retaken all of Afghanistan.

And from a geographic point of view you can get from one to the other via China. Vietnam has a long 1,283 km (797 mi) border with China while Afghanistan is China’s shortest border at just 76 km (47 mi) border.

Here are all of China’s borders ranked:

1. Mongolia: 4,678 km (2,907 mi)
2.  Russia: 3,645 km (2,265 mi)
3.  India: 3,488 km (2,167 mi)
4.  Myanmar: 2,185 km (1,358 mi)
5.  Kazakhstan: 1,533 km (953 mi)
6.    Nepal: 1,440 km (890 mi)
7.  North Korea: 1,416 km (880 mi)
8.  Vietnam: 1,283 km (797 mi)
9.  Kyrgyzstan: 858 km (533 mi)
10.  Pakistan: 596 km (370 mi)
11.  Bhutan: 470 km (290 mi)
12.  Laos: 423 km (263 mi)
13.  Tajikistan: 414 km (257 mi)
14.  Afghanistan: 76 km (47 mi)

The EU Customs Union Borders Iran, Iraq & Syria

The map above shows that the EU Customs Union actually borders Iran, Iraq & Syria via Turkey.

This also means that both Greece and Bulgaria (full EU members) are separated from all 3 by just one country.

And even crazier still, up until 1830 all of them would have been part of the same country: The Ottoman Empire!

Bonus Melbourne, Australia is closer to Antarctica than it is to Darwin, Australia.

And yet another example:

The Northern Point is near Russia’s border Norway and the Southern point is on Hainan in China.