Virtual state to acquire physical territory from Maldives

Wirtland, the first sovereign cybercountry, has announced plan to legitimately acquire real land from one (or even several) world’s countries. If realized, it will be the first case of peaceful formation of a new country “from a scratch”.
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On March 15 Wirtland approached the Government of the Republic of Maldives with a formal proposal to transfer a piece of its territory to Wirtland. “Proposal for Monetization of Unused Land by cooperation between Republic of Maldives and Wirtland” is intended to utilize a small piece of Maldives’ unused terrain. According to the Proposal, “Republic of Maldives officially assigns a piece of its territory, of any quality and size, to Wirtland. Maldives will have a major stake in future sales of land from this territory, agreed in contract”. In his letter addressed to the President of the Republic of Maldives, Chancellor of Wirtland underlined his hope that “such a plan, if realized, will make a positive effect on the economy of Maldives”.

Thereby the virtual state would take hold of official territory, which later would be offered for sale to people willing to become citizens of new country. The quality and size of territory do not matter: Wirtland will remain virtual community, as no buyer will physically move to Maldives. However, presence of defined territory is a necessary condition for diplomatic recognition of Wirtland by international community, according to Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. According to Article 1 of Montevideo Convention, to have sovereignty, a state must have a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government. Wirtland hopes that peaceful acqusition of even a small piece of territory by virtual community will become a unique historical precedent and will open the door towards full official recognition of Wirtland, legitimization of Wirtland passports and other documents issued by virtual state.

For a partner country such as the Republic of Maldives, the result of the barter deal is possibility to make money out of otherwise useless land. Maldives’ official reaction is not known. Wirtland reserves right to approach other governments with similar proposal.

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Wirtland describes itself as an experiment into legitimacy and self-sustainability of a country without its own soil. Founded in 2008, Wirtland represents people from all five continents. Wirtland grants citizenships, issues ID cards, mints gold and silver money, is featured in Wikipedia, and has won considerable coverage by television and press.
The Republic of Maldives is an island country in the Indian Ocean. It is the smallest Asian country in both population and area. Maldives were among the first nations to open official Embassy in “Second Life” (a virtual world).

Alternatively if the Maldives loses all its “solid ground” territory to rising waters, might other countries refuse to recognize the sovereignty of these floating islands? Structurally they are similar to ships, so they might not be recognized as Maldivian territory in their own right. And if Maldives loses its solid-ground territory, could it be claimed that Maldives no longer exists as a country? This would put the sovereignty of the floating islands into a legal limbo.

As for hurricanes, fortunately the Maldives is located in an area where we don’t experience hurricanes, earthquakes or tornadoes

However whether it would stand up to a hurricane or other elements mother nature throws is another factor.