What landlocked nations (past or present) have a Naval service, military or merchant? Under the Convention on the High Seas of 1958 and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, landlocked nations are allowed to operate ships under their own flag. The only country that comes to mind is Switzerland. Any others?
Well in The Sound of Music Captain von Trapp is an Austrian naval officer, which I always thought was odd.
I just looked in Google and there must be lots.
From http://law.uniserve.edu.au/law/pub/icl/mStudies/maritime_studies_90/ms_Security.html
Also Paraquay, Luxembourg, Bolivia.
Maybe you would have to check out Jane’s for a list of all navies.
The military forces of both Paraguay and Bolivia include separate naval branches. Both countries have international borders with important bodies of water; i.e., the Paraguay River and Lake Titicaca, respectively.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan all have navies; although none has direct access to the world ocean, all border on the land-locked (and internationally disputed) Caspian Sea.
The army of Malawi (a significant portion of whose international border is formed by the large Lake Nyasa) includes a “Naval Detachment”; the army of Laos includes a “riverine element” (much of that country’s border with Thailand is formed by the Mekong River).
Ethiopia became a landlocked nation after Eritrean independence in 1993; former Ethiopian naval bases are now under Eritrean control and the Ethiopian Navy’s ships were sold.
Although neither country has a separate maritime military force, the merchant marines of Austria and Switzerland total 23 and 24 ships, respectively. The merchant marine of Hungary consists of a single ship.
He was an officer in the navy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which pre-1918 had a fairly substantial navy based from Adriatic ports like Fiume 
.
- Tamerlane
Chad is landlocked too.
Bulgaria, Romania, Luxembourg, Leichtenstein, Andora, Czech Republic, Zaire, Congo, Central African Republic?
there are loads.
Oops…missed a couple.
The merchant marine of Slovakia includes 3 ships. Luxembourg’s merchant marine includes a whopping 50 ships.
Well, yes, but Chad has neither a navy nor a merchant marine.
where did you get this info from it is bollox. very incomplete.
IIRC, Bolivia also had sea access at one time, before losing it to Chile. They still want it back. But anyway, I got chased out of a Bolivian naval station while visiting Lake Titicaca some years back. Just imagine, without those valiant servicemen, I could’ve invaded Bolivia! 
From the link below it. It refers only to navies using the Indian Ocean.
Neither Bulgaria nor Romania is even remotely landlocked. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (the former Zaire) has a very short coastline (37 km) at the mouth of the Congo River.
ah yeah sorry i was guessing from memory about Romania and Bulgaria. my memory isnt too hot.
Ah! The military forces of Uganda include a “marine unit”. Uganda’s international borders include a major coastline on the very large Lake Victoria, and stretches on the smaller Lakes Albert and Edward.
don’t ask: I don’t think that link is saying those landlocked countries necessarily have navies; the question is whether to include them in the “Indian Ocean Region” for geopolitical purposes.
Oops. Sorry about that.
Carry on.
how about Laos?
Yeah, Bolivia lost its coastline in the War of the Pacific back in the 19th Century. I remember coming across an entry for Bolivia in Jane’s Fighting Ships back in the early '90’s which indicated that the official name of the country’s naval force was the “Armada Boliviana”. Granted, I think that just means “Bolivian Fleet” in Spanish, it still struck me as pretty funny. (They have apparently since renamed it the less comic-sounding “Fuerza Naval Boliviana”–probably all the other countries kept making fun of them.) I figured at the time it must be some kind of over-compensation for having lost their entire coastline, surely a traumatic event for any nation. IIRC, the commandant of the “Armada Boliviana” (dontcha just wanna click your heels and say “Ole!” when you read that?) at the time was a Vice Admiral; I pictured this guy in a spotless white uniform, a really fancy hat, a dress sword, and a tremendous number of ribbons and medals. The fact that the Armada Boliviana presumably spends much of its time patrolling Lake Titicaca (the world’s highest deepest lake with the funniest name) merely adds to the humor.
How about it? As previously noted, the Lao People’s Army includes a “riverine element”. But AFAIK there is no Laotian Armada.
Don’t forget Switzerland. Definitively land-locked, but with nice lakes.
quoting from Flags of the world:
Under the 1919 Traeaty of Versailles the Czech Republic and Slovakia still have an autonomous port area in Hamburg so are in theory countries with Ocean access.
I was about to mention Hungary, but just realized someone already beat me to it…cripes. But a bit of trivia… My friend and I believe that Uzbekistan is the only landlocked country to be bordered completely by landlocked countries.