The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an independent sovereign island nation and a United States associated state consisting of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the Western Pacific Ocean. Together, the states comprise around 607 islands (a combined land area of approximately ) that cover a longitudinal distance of almost just north of the equator. They lie northeast of New Guinea, south of Guam and the Marianas, west of Nauru and the Marshall Islands, east of Palau and the Philippines, about north of eastern Australia and some southwest of the main islands of Hawaii.