UNCLOS III was significant also for its recognition of the rights of Archipelagic States in
respect of their marit ime boundaries. Article 47 of UNCLOS III states that Archipelagic
States may draw straight archipelagic baselines around the “outermost points of the outermost
islands and drying reef of the archipelago”. These baselines would be the points from which
an Archipelagic state’s territorial seas, EEZ and continental shelf are measured