Asia

=== Asia–North America boundary ===
The [[Bering Strait]] and [[Bering Sea]] separate the [[landmass]]es of Asia and [[North America]], as well as forming the international boundary between Russia and the United States. This [[National boundary|national]] and continental boundary separates the [[Diomede Islands]] in the Bering Strait, with [[Diomede Islands|Big Diomede]] in [[Russian Federation|Russia]] and [[Diomede Islands|Little Diomede]] in the [[United States]]. The [[Aleutian Islands]] are an island chain extending westward from the [[Alaskan Peninsula]] toward Russia's [[Komandorski Islands]] and [[Kamchatka Peninsula]]. Most of them are always associated with North America, except for the westernmost [[Near Islands]] group, which is on Asia's continental shelf beyond the [[North Aleutians Basin]] and on rare occasions could be associated with Asia, which could then allow the U.S. state of [[Alaska]] as well as the United States itself to be considered a transcontinental state. The Aleutian Islands are sometimes associated with Oceania, owing to their status as remote Pacific islands, and their proximity to the Pacific Plate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Danver |first1=Steven L. |title=Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues |date=2015 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=185 |isbn=978-1317464006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vf4TBwAAQBAJ&dq=%22aleutians%22+%22part+of+oceania%22&pg=PA185 |access-date=23 April 2022 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404181817/https://books.google.com/books?id=vf4TBwAAQBAJ&dq=%22aleutians%22+%22part+of+oceania%22&pg=PA185 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wallace |first1=Alfred Russel |title=Australasia |date=1879 |publisher=The University of Michigan |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2kcAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22oceania+is+the+word+often%22&pg=PA2 |access-date=12 March 2022 |quote=Oceania is the word often used by continental geographers to describe the great world of islands we are now entering upon [...] This boundless watery domain, which extends northwards of Behring Straits and southward to the Antarctic barrier of ice, is studded with many island groups, which are, however, very irregularly distributed over its surface. The more northerly section, lying between Japan and California and between the Aleutian and Hawaiian Archipelagos is relived by nothing but a few solitary reefs and rocks at enormously distant intervals. |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064236/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Australasia/e2kcAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22oceania+is+the+word+often%22&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kohlhoff |first1=Dean |title=Amchitka and the Bomb: Nuclear Testing in Alaska |date=2002 |publisher=University of Washington Press |page=6 |isbn=978-0295800509 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSWn8lbI4q4C&dq=%22aleutian+islands%22+%22oceania%22&pg=PA6 |access-date=12 March 2022 |quote=The regional name of the Pacific Islands is appropriate: Oceania, a sea of islands, including those of Alaska and Hawaii. The Pacific Basin is not insignificant or remote. It covers one third of the globe's surface. Its northern boundary is the Aleutian Islands chain. Oceania virtually touches all of the Western Hemisphere. |archive-date=17 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517051213/https://books.google.com/books?id=kSWn8lbI4q4C&dq=%22aleutian+islands%22+%22oceania%22&pg=PA6 |url-status=live }}</ref> This is extremely rare however, due to their non-tropical biogeography, as well as their [[Aleut|inhabitants]], who have historically been related to [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous American]]s.<ref name="flick">{{cite book |last1=Flick |first1=Alexander Clarence |title=Modern World History, 1776-1926: A Survey of the Origins and Development of Contemporary Civilization |date=1926 |publisher=A.A. Knopf |page=492 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PhGHAAAAMAAJ&q=Modern%20World%20History,%201776-1926A%20Survey%20of%20the%20Origins%20and%20Development%20of%20Contemporary%20Civilization |access-date=10 July 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064936/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Modern_World_History_1776_1926/PhGHAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=Modern+World+History%2C+1776-1926A+Survey+of+the+Origins+and+Development+of+Contemporary+Civilization |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="handbook">{{cite book |last1=Henderson |first1=John William |title=Area Handbook for Oceania |date=1971 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NuOIqt-UQowC&dq=%22oceania%22+%22aleutian+islands%22&pg=PR5 |access-date=11 March 2022 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406111120/https://books.google.com/books?id=NuOIqt-UQowC&dq=%22oceania%22+%22aleutian+islands%22&pg=PR5 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[St. Lawrence Island]] in the northern Bering Sea belongs to Alaska and may be associated with either continent but is almost always considered part of North America, as with the [[Rat Islands]] in the Aleutian chain. At their nearest points, [[Alaska]] and [[Russia]] are separated by only {{convert|2.5|mi|0|order=flip|abbr=off}}.