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The following country pairs share a very special, very distinguished, very striking property:

  • Belarus and India
  • Gabon and Italy
  • Malta and Iraq
  • Uganda and Israel

What is this common property?
Can you provide another country pair with that property?

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  • $\begingroup$ I see that you have selected a correct answer. So is there another country pair with the same property? $\endgroup$
    – Len
    Jul 21, 2015 at 6:04

2 Answers 2

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Letters can be rearranged to form names of other countries.

Belarus India

Sudan Liberia

Gabon Italy

Libya Tonga

Malta Iraq

Mali Qatar

Uganda Israel

Sudan Algeria

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  • $\begingroup$ If we are very liberal with how we define state, Estonia and Denmark can be used to form Armenia and Donetsk. $\endgroup$
    – Ayefork
    Apr 6, 2015 at 19:10
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    $\begingroup$ Well this was completely boring. $\endgroup$
    – Etheryte
    Apr 7, 2015 at 10:00
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I will answer to the second question, since Ayefork just showed the pattern.

Can you provide another country pair with that property?

Republic of Korea - Democratic Republic of Congo

can be easily rearranged to

Republic of Congo - Democratic Republic of Korea

They look all the same, but they're actually different countries!

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    $\begingroup$ I don't think this quite works, since the question uses the short name of countries, not the formal name. The pattern doesn't work if we use "State of Israel" or "People's Democratic Republic of Algeria". $\endgroup$
    – KSmarts
    Apr 6, 2015 at 18:37
  • $\begingroup$ Good point, though the question doesn't specify that we must use the short name. Just let them be States! $\endgroup$
    – leoll2
    Apr 6, 2015 at 18:55
  • $\begingroup$ Sudan and Liberia is another example of such a country pair.. Sudan/Liberia -> Belarus/India. Though I guess that's cheating? $\endgroup$ Apr 6, 2015 at 20:41

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