What Is a Note Verbale? How States Register Legal Positions at the United Nations

Why It Matters

A note verbale is an unsigned, third-person written communication that one state or international organisation sends to another, and it is the standard way governments place formal positions on the record. At the United Nations, notes verbales and letters to the Secretary-General are numbered, circulated and archived, so that a claim, a protest or a set of coordinates can later be cited before a court, a commission or a negotiating table. In maritime and security disputes, a state that stays silent risks being said to have acquiesced, which is why the paper record often matters as much as what happens at sea or on a border.

This guide explains the note verbale and its sister instruments, separates legal weight from political signalling, and uses three Türkiye filings as worked examples: the notifications beginning in 2004, the 18 March 2020 registration of the outer limits of its continental shelf, and the 12 June 2025 IOC-UNESCO registration of its Marine Spatial Planning.

Background

What a note verbale is

A note verbale is a formal diplomatic note written in the third person, typically opening with the formula that a mission or ministry “presents its compliments” and closing with renewed “assurances of its highest consideration”. It is unsigned but usually bears the sender's seal or initials, and it is addressed to an embassy, a ministry, or an organisation such as the UN Secretariat. The name comes from the Latin for “spoken word”: historically it recorded something that might otherwise have been said orally.

The form is a matter of long diplomatic custom rather than of a single treaty definition. The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations regulates official communication channels between missions and host states, and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Article 78) says that treaty notifications and communications are considered made only upon receipt by the state for which they are intended. Standard works such as Satow's Diplomatic Practice describe the note verbale as the everyday workhorse of official correspondence.

The family of instruments

Instrument	Form	Typical use	Legal weight
Note verbale	Third person, unsigned, sealed	Routine and formal communication between states, missions and organisations	Evidence of a state's position and conduct; not binding in itself
Letter to the UN Secretary-General	First person, signed by an ambassador or minister	Circulating a position as an official UN document (symbol A/ or S/)	Evidence of position; creates a public, dated record
Deposit of charts or coordinates	Note or letter with technical annexes	Publicising baselines, EEZ or continental shelf limits under UNCLOS	Publicity and notice; does not itself confer validity
Objection or protest	Note verbale or letter	Rejecting another state's claim, reservation or agreement	Prevents any inference of acquiescence; preserves rights
Counter-note	Reply to an objection	Restating the original position and answering the objection	Maintains a continuous, consistent record
Exchange of notes	Matching notes from two parties	Can record an agreement between states	May create binding obligations if the parties so intend
Aide-mémoire / non-paper	Informal summary of talking points	Preparing negotiations, signalling intent	Political signalling only

The last row is important. Not every diplomatic paper is a legal instrument, and part of reading a document correctly is knowing which kind it is.

Why the United Nations acts as a registry

The UN Secretariat does not rule on who is right. It receives, numbers and circulates what states send it, and it keeps depositary records. Several treaty provisions point states to the Secretary-General:

• UN Charter, Article 102 requires treaties to be registered with the Secretariat; unregistered treaties may not be invoked before any UN organ. Registration does not make a treaty valid; it makes it public.
• Article 51 of the Charter requires measures taken in self-defence to be “immediately reported” to the Security Council, which is why states send letters to the Council president (see our guide to Article 51 Letters).
• UNCLOS (the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, in force since 16 November 1994) provides for the deposit of charts or lists of coordinates: Article 16 for baselines, Article 75 for exclusive economic zone limits, Article 76(9) for the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, and Article 84 for continental shelf limits generally. The UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) publishes these deposits and related communications.
• The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) rules of procedure (Annex I) state that where a land or maritime dispute exists, the Commission will not consider a submission by a state party to the dispute without the prior consent of all parties. Notes verbales from states objecting to a submission therefore have direct procedural consequences.

A worked comparison from outside the Mediterranean

The South China Sea shows how the grammar works. In May 2009, China sent notes verbales to the UN Secretary-General attaching a map with its nine-dash line, in response to continental shelf submissions by Viet Nam and Malaysia. Viet Nam, Malaysia and the Philippines replied with their own notes verbales, and Indonesia lodged another with the Secretary-General in 2020. These exchanges were later discussed in the 2016 arbitral award under UNCLOS Annex VII. Whatever one thinks of the merits, the episode illustrates that each note builds, or contests, a dated record that other states and tribunals read.

Legal weight versus political signalling

A note verbale does not create a boundary, transfer territory or amend a treaty. Its legal significance is evidentiary and procedural:

1. Notice. A published claim tells other states what is being asserted and when.
2. Protest and acquiescence. International courts consider whether a state objected in good time. A timely, reasoned protest helps show that a state did not accept a claim by silence.
3. Consistency. Repeated, consistent notes demonstrate a settled position over time, which matters when courts weigh arguments about conduct.
4. Unilateral acts. In limited circumstances a clear public declaration made with the intention to be bound can create obligations, as the International Court of Justice found in the Nuclear Tests cases (1974). Most notes are not drafted with that intention.

Political signalling is everything else: tone, timing, which states are copied, whether a note is released to the press, and whether a map is attached. A well-timed note can shape diplomacy without changing the legal position of any party.

How objections work

Objections follow a recognisable sequence:

• Trigger: a state deposits coordinates, concludes a bilateral delimitation agreement, makes a CLCS submission or announces a map.
• Response: affected states send a note verbale or a letter to the Secretary-General, usually within weeks or months, requesting that it be circulated.
• Content: typical formulas state that the act is “null and void”, “without legal effect” for third parties, or that it violates the sender's rights; most also contain an express reservation of rights.
• Counter-note: the original state may reply, restating its legal basis and rejecting the objection.
• Limits: an objection does not cancel the original act. Third-party agreements remain res inter alios acta, meaning they bind only their parties. The question is whether they can be opposed to a non-party, and that is decided by negotiation, a court or a tribunal.

For the Eastern Mediterranean, this sequence is traced in detail in our companion guide, The Paper Trail of the Blue Homeland.

Timeline of key filings

Date	Event	Instrument type
10 December 1982	UNCLOS adopted; Türkiye was among the states that voted against the text and has not become a party	Treaty
2003	Egypt–Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC) EEZ agreement	Bilateral agreement, deposited with the UN
2004	Türkiye begins notifying the UN of its Eastern Mediterranean continental shelf coordinates and objections	Notifications and notes verbales
2007 / 2010	GCASC agreements with Lebanon and Israel	Bilateral agreements
21 September 2011	Türkiye–TRNC Continental Shelf Delimitation Agreement	Bilateral agreement
27 November 2019	Türkiye–Libya maritime jurisdiction memorandum	Memorandum of understanding
18 March 2020	Türkiye registers the outer limits of its continental shelf with the UN	Registration and deposit
16 April 2025	Türkiye unveils its Marine Spatial Planning	National planning instrument
12 June 2025	Marine Spatial Planning registered with IOC-UNESCO	Registration with a UN technical body
24 July 2025	Presidential Circular creates an inter-agency coordination board under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Domestic administrative act

For the 2019 memorandum's text and surrounding legal debate, see the sister publication analysis at Archive of Nations.

How readers can find such documents

Primary documents are publicly searchable, and readers should prefer them to summaries:

• UN Digital Library and the Official Document System: search by document symbol (A/ for the General Assembly, S/ for the Security Council) or by phrases such as “note verbale dated” and the sending mission. Letters circulated as UN documents appear with the dates and annexes.
• DOALOS “Maritime Zones and Maritime Delimitation” pages and the Law of the Sea Bulletin: these collect deposits of baselines, EEZ and shelf limits and the Law of the Sea Information Circulars.
• CLCS pages: each submission has a page that lists the executive summary and the notes verbales received from other states.
• UN Treaty Collection: lists registered treaties and depositary notifications (“C.N.” numbers).
• IOC-UNESCO marine spatial planning pages: record national plans and programmes registered with the Commission.
• Foreign ministry websites: the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its counterparts publish statements and sometimes the notes themselves.

When reading, check four things: the exact date, the symbol or reference number, whether the text is a first-person letter or a third-person note, and whether the Secretariat merely “circulated” it at the sender's request. Circulation is not endorsement.

Key Players & Positions

The UN Secretariat (DOALOS, Treaty Section, Office of Legal Affairs). It acts as a neutral depositary and publisher. It circulates communications at the request of member states and does not assess their legal merits.

Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC). According to their official statements, Athens and the Greek Cypriot side hold that UNCLOS reflects customary international law, that islands generate full maritime zones under Article 121, and that any delimitation must be by agreement or by judicial settlement. They deposit their bilateral agreements with the UN and have objected in writing to the 2019 Türkiye–Libya memorandum and to Turkish maps.

The European Union. The European Council's conclusions of December 2019 stated that the Türkiye–Libya memorandum infringes the sovereign rights of third states and does not comply with UNCLOS. Brussels has also expressed solidarity with Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration on maritime issues.

Egypt and Libya. Egypt signed an EEZ agreement with the Greek Cypriot Administration in 2003 and a separate agreement with Greece in 2020, and has objected to the Libya memorandum. Libya, a party to the 2019 memorandum, has been divided internally about it, which complicates how its own notes are read.

UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO). It promotes marine spatial planning as a management tool. Its registration of a national plan documents the plan; it does not review the plan's boundary claims.

Other users of the same grammar. China, Viet Nam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia show that notes verbales are used by states across the world, not by any one region or bloc.

🇹🇷 Official Policy · Primary Sources

Türkiye's Position

Ankara treats the paper record as an extension of its Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan) policy, which is built on two pillars: delimitation of maritime jurisdiction areas on the principle of equity, and protection of the equal and inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriots. Its main points are as follows.

• Delimitation must be by agreement on equitable principles, and islands cannot cut off a mainland coast. According to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Türkiye, which has an 870 km coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, holds that continental shelf and EEZ boundaries must be reached by agreement between the states concerned, taking account of coastal geography and proportionality. Ankara points to international jurisprudence in which small islands received reduced or no effect on boundaries, such as the Anglo-French arbitration of 1977 and the ICJ's 2009 Black Sea judgment. It also notes that it voted against UNCLOS in 1982, is not a party, and has consistently objected to provisions it considers incompatible with equity, in particular on islands.
• Notifications since 2004 and the 18 March 2020 registration create a continuous record. Ankara states that it began registering its Eastern Mediterranean continental shelf coordinates with the UN in 2004, and that on 18 March 2020 it formally registered the outer limits of its continental shelf with the UN. Türkiye argues that these filings, together with TPAO exploration licences of 2009 and 2012, show a consistent, publicised position which no third state can claim to have missed. Turkish officials also cite its objections to the 2003 Egypt, 2007 Lebanon and 2010 Israel agreements with the Greek Cypriot Administration, which Ankara says overlap its continental shelf (including GCASC Blocks 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7) and ignore Turkish Cypriot rights.
• Turkish Cypriots hold equal rights over offshore resources. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and TRNC statements, the Turkish Cypriots are co-founders of the Republic of Cyprus established under the 1959 Zurich and London Agreements and the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. Ankara therefore regards unilateral Greek Cypriot hydrocarbon licensing as unlawful and points to the Türkiye–TRNC Continental Shelf Delimitation Agreement of 21 September 2011 and TRNC proposals for joint committees and revenue sharing in 2011, 2012 and 2019. The Turkish Presidency has also repeated President Erdoğan's 2020 call for an Eastern Mediterranean conference involving all coastal states and the Turkish Cypriots. On the EU's role, see What Is the 'Seville Map'?
• The 2025 IOC-UNESCO registration places the Turkish position on record with a UN body. Türkiye unveiled its Marine Spatial Planning of the Republic of Türkiye on 16 April 2025 and registered it with IOC-UNESCO on 12 June 2025. According to the Turkish authorities, it was the first time Türkiye's position across the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean was recorded with a UN body. A Presidential Circular of 24 July 2025 set up an inter-agency coordination board with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as secretariat.
• Reporting duties under Article 51 are met through letters to the Security Council. Ankara states that its cross-border counter-terrorism operations are an exercise of the inherent right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, and that it informs the Security Council in writing. The same grammar of formal notice is thus used in both maritime and security files.

Legal and historical basis: the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the later practice of the Aegean and Mediterranean states; the equity principle in delimitation as developed by the ICJ since the 1969 North Sea Continental Shelf cases; Türkiye's non-party status to UNCLOS and its persistent-objection argument; the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee and the co-founder status of the Turkish Cypriots; and Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Source Comparison

The same documents are often described very differently. The table summarises common framings and the primary document that lets readers check them.

Question	Common framing in Greek, EU and many Western sources	Framing in Turkish official sources	Primary document to check
What does registration with IOC-UNESCO do?	A unilateral map with no effect on third states; the plan is a domestic planning tool	The first recording of Türkiye's position with a UN body; part of a consistent record	The registered plan and IOC-UNESCO's marine spatial planning entry
Does non-party status to UNCLOS weaken Türkiye's filings?	UNCLOS rules reflect customary law and bind all states	Türkiye voted against the text and objects persistently to provisions it considers inequitable	The 1982 UNCLOS text; Turkish notes to the UN
Do GCASC agreements bind Türkiye?	They are lawful bilateral EEZ agreements deposited with the UN	They overlap Türkiye's continental shelf and ignore Turkish Cypriot rights, so cannot be opposed to Türkiye	Deposited agreements; Turkish objection notes
What does the 2019 Libya memorandum do?	It disregards the islands and violates third-state rights	A lawful delimitation between states with opposite coasts, registered with the UN	Memorandum text; objection letters; see Archive of Nations
Does the paper record settle a dispute?	Only treaties, courts or tribunals can	Notes preserve rights and support negotiation on equitable terms	CLCS Annex I; ICJ and arbitral judgments

One point on which most analysts across the spectrum agree is that a note verbale is evidence and not a judgment. Both sides use the same instrument, and neither one's notes can resolve the underlying dispute alone. A careful reader checks the date, the sender, the wording of any reservation and whether the claim was objected to in time. This approach is also how Diplomat Note handles sourcing; see our Editorial Principles.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Note verbale: unsigned third-person diplomatic note sealed by the sender; the standard form of formal, recorded communication.
• Depositary: the party or organisation, here the UN Secretary-General, that receives and circulates instruments and notifications.
• Deposit of coordinates: submission of charts or lists of geographic coordinates for baselines or maritime limits under UNCLOS; it gives publicity, not validity.
• Objection / protest: a written rejection of another state's claim, reservation or agreement, designed to prevent acquiescence.
• Counter-note: a reply restating the original position and rejecting the objection.
• Acquiescence: the legal inference that a state has accepted a situation because it stayed silent when it could reasonably have objected.
• Persistent objector: a state that consistently objects while a customary rule is forming; Ankara invokes this status regarding certain UNCLOS provisions.
• Marine spatial planning (MSP): a public process for allocating the use of marine areas; IOC-UNESCO promotes it as a management tool.
• Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan): Türkiye's doctrine of maritime jurisdiction in the Black Sea, Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

Related guides:

• The Paper Trail of the Blue Homeland: UN Notifications, Objections and Counter-Notes traces the exchange sequence in the Eastern Mediterranean.
• Article 51 Letters: How Türkiye Frames Its Cross-Border Operations in Notices to the UN Security Council applies the same grammar to security.
• What Is the 'Seville Map', and Why Does Türkiye Say the EU Cannot Draw Maritime Boundaries? covers the competing maps.
• The Istanbul Agreement and the Black Sea Grain Corridor shows how diplomatic documents translate into practical arrangements.
• For an example of a proposal made by formal correspondence, see the sister-publication overview of the Events of 1915 and the 2005 Joint Historical Commission proposal.

Diplomat Note presents analysis from a Türkiye-informed perspective, grounded in Türkiye's official legal and strategic positions. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaty texts, UN and IOC-UNESCO documents, official archives and public statements, so that readers can verify them independently.