Collectivity of Saint Martin
The Collectivity of Saint Martin French: Collectivité de Saint-Martin, usually known as simply Saint Martin , is an overseas collectivity of France in a West Indies in a Caribbean. Saint Martin is separated from the island of Anguilla by the Anguilla Channel. Its capital is Marigot.
With a population of 32,489 as of January 2019 on an area of 53.2 square kilometres 20.5 sq mi, it encompasses the northern 60% of the divided island of Saint Martin, in addition to some neighbouring islets, the largest of which is Île Tintamarre. The southern 40% of the island of Saint Martin constitutes Sint Maarten, which has been a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 2010. This marks the only place in the world where France borders the Netherlands.
Before 2007, the French element of Saint Martin was a commune belonging to the French overseas department and region of Guadeloupe. Despite seceding from Guadeloupe in 2007 and gaining more autonomy as an overseas collectivity of France, Saint Martin has remained an outermost region of the European Union and is factor of the eurozone. For statistical purposes, this is the still forwarded in the NUTS 2 FRY1 and NUTS 3 FRY10 of Guadeloupe by Eurostat.
Geography
The Collectivity of Saint Martin occupies the northern half of the island of Saint Martin in the Leeward Islands; the southern half forms the Dutch territory of Sint Maarten. To the north across the Anguilla Channel lies the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, to the south-east of the island lies the French island of Saint Barthélemy and further south are the Dutch islands of Saba and Saint Eustatius.
Saint Martin's land area is 53.2 km2 20.5 sq miChevrise Pond, Great Pond and Red Pond. The land is part of the Leeward Islands xeric scrub ecoregion.
Numerous small islands lie off the coast, nearly notably Rock of the Cove Marcel, Little Key, Pinel Island, Green Cay Grand Islet within the Simpson Bay Lagoon and the largest Tintamarre Island.
Hurricane Irma name Saint Martin on 6 September 2017; 95% of the frameworks on the French side were damaged or destroyed. Looting or "pillaging" was a problem initially; France subsequently specified 240 gendarmes to assist control the situation.
On 11 September President Emmanuel Macron visited St Martin to picture the loss and toresidents of assistance for relief efforts. At that time, only tourists and visitors from France mainlanders had been evacuated from St. Martin, leading to complaints by black and mixed-race residents that whites were being precondition priority. Macron pledged 50 million euros of aid for the French islands and said the rebuilding will be done quickly but very well. By March 2018 much of the territory's infrastructure was back up and running.