Tuvalu looking at legal ways to be a state if it is submerged

FILE PHOTO: Tuvalu's Minister for Justice, Communication & Foreign Affairs Simon Kofe gives a COP26 statement while standing in the ocean in Funafuti, Tuvalu November 5, 2021. Courtesy Tuvalu's Ministry of Justice, Communication and Foreign Affairs / Social Media via REUTERS

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Tuvalu is looking at legal ways to keep its ownership of its maritime zones and recognition as a state even if the Pacific island nation is completely submerged due to climate change, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.

"We're actually imagining a worst-case scenario where we are forced to relocate or our lands are submerged," the minister, Simon Kofe, told Reuters in an interview.