Forum: travel.stackexchange.com
Tags: <borders><factoids><countries>
Title: What are the two closest countries that do not share a border?
Question: Are there any closer than Namibia/Zimbabwe (which are separated by "less than 200 metres of riverbed", belonging to Botswana,  according to Wikipedia )?  I'm interested specifically in the case where the countries don't share a  land border , but are separated by a short  overland  distance.

Answers:
sents: text: Tajikistan and Pakistan are 16 km from each other, separated by the Wakhan Corridor which belongs to Afghanistan.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/241/mouviciel
score: 12
sents: text: I'm trying to find countries with a tight corridor to sea, so that the countries on both sides are close to each other.
text: Bosnia's corridor is only a few km, but both sides of it are Croatia, so that doesn't count.
text: Israel's Red Sea corridor is about 10km wide I think, with neighbouring Egypt and Jordan being that close to each other.
text: This is probably the closest of the ones I've looked at.
text: I think Iraq's connection to the Gulf (bringing Iran and Kuwait close to each other) is slightly larger, but all these "measurements" were made by on zooming on Google Maps and squinting.
text: Slovenia's corridor between Italy and Croatia is similar.
text: Armenia and Iran get within a few km of each other, with Turkey in between, here .
text: But that is spoiled by the fact that they share an actual border on the other side of Azerbaijan's exclave to the right.
text: I want to finish this by mentioning Baarle-Nassau-Hertog , which doesn't qualify (it's all either Netherlands or Belgium)
text: but it's fun.
text: There are also six Dutch exclaves located within the largest Belgian exclave, one within the second-largest, and an eighth within Zondereigen.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/11352/RemcoGerlich
score: 6
sents: text: Bangladesh and Nepal come within about 25 km of each other, with India in between.
text: Egypt and Saudi Arabia come within about 30 km overland through Israel and Jordan (closer straight-line distance over water).
text: Mongolia and Kazakhstan are separated by about 35 km of rather mountainous terrain.
text: Germany and Italy are separated by about 45 km through Austria.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/2363/Greg Hewgill
score: 6
sents: text: The easternmost tip of Sughd Province , Tajikistan, east of the town of Isfara , has a panhandle squeezed between Uzbekistan to the north and Kyrgyzstan to the south.
text: Using the Maps Labs Distance Measurement Tool on Google Maps , its skinniest part is only around 2.2 km wide.
text: The national borders in the whole Fergana Valley region are generally just ridiculous thanks to Stalin , but this was the thinnest three-country sandwich I could find. ...
text: and I just realized I missed the qualification "that do not share a border", since Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan do.
text: Oh
text: well, it's still an interesting oddity of geography.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/1893/lambshaanxy
score: 2
sents: text: Since nobody has found a shorter distance, it seems that Namibia and Zimbabwe are the closest pair.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/3773/Max
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
It seems that Namibia and Zimbabwe are the closest pair, but other near neighbours include Tajikistan and Pakistan, which are 16 km from each other and separated by the Wakhan Corridor belonging to Afghanistan; Egypt and Jordan, separated by Israel's approximately 10km wide Red Sea corridor; Bangladesh and India, which are 25km apart and separated by India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which come within about 30 km overland through Israel and Jordan and less by water; Germany and Italy, which are separated by about 45 km through Austria; and the easternmost tip of  Sughd Province, Tajikistan, which has a panhandle squeezed between Uzbekistan to the north and Kyrgyzstan to the south.  
There are a number of examples of countries that do not share a bordering coming very close to each other but separated by a third country. Examples are Iraq between Iran and Kuwait, Tajikistan and Pakistan separated by Afghanistan, Germany and Italy separated by Austria. The narrowest gap seems to be where Botswana separates Namibia and Zimbabwe.