How Ukraine: Georgia abstained from voting on the "decolonization" of the world map

Georgia was among the six countries that abstained from voting at the UN General Assembly for the resolution "Correct the Map" (Correct the Map) — an initiative that its authors consider as part of the fight against the colonial legacy in cartography, the portal "News Georgia" reports.

The document proposes to gradually abandon the usual 16th-century Mercator projection, which visually enlarges territories located far from the equator, and switch to the Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018.

In addition to Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Lithuania and Estonia. Georgian officials did not explain Tbilisi's position.

The only country that voted against the document was the United States. At the same time, the resolution was supported by the overwhelming majority of the world's states — 164 countries.

The US representative to the UN, Yarina Ferentsevich, harshly criticized the initiative, saying that the resolution ridicules the work of the General Assembly. According to Washington, instead of solving real global problems, the authority was distracted by "cartographic projects of the XVI century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice."

The main initiators of the document were the countries of the African Union, Togo, as well as France. The head of the French Foreign Ministry, Jean-Noel Barrault, even announced the readiness of the department to abandon the Mercator projection. Experts regarded this position of Paris, among other things, as an attempt to strengthen influence in the former colonies.

The Gerard Mercator projection was created in the XVI century for navigation: It preserves angles and directions, which is ideal for a compass, but distorts areas as you move away from the equator. As a result, Greenland on such a map seems comparable to Africa, although in reality the African continent is 14 times larger than Greenland: the USA, China, India, Japan, Mexico and most of Europe can simultaneously fit on its territory. The initiators of the reform call this a "symbolic belittling" of the southern regions and the consolidation of colonial thinking.

The Equal Earth model adopted by the UN (2018) displays the "real ratios of territories". The resolution of the General Assembly is not binding, but calls on schools, government agencies and technology giants to consider using the new model in maps, educational materials and digital services.