archipelago between mainland Southeast Asia and Australia
The Malay Archipelago is the collective name given to the islands of Southeast Asia whose indigenous people are mainly Austronesian peoples. The term Nusantara is often used with the same meaning in parts of the region other than Indonesia; in 21st-century Indonesian, it usually refers to Indonesia only. The modern countries in the area are:
- Most of Indonesia
- Malaysia — specifically the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo, and the federal territory of Labuan, which is a nearby group of islands
- Brunei
- East Timor
- Philippines
- Singapore