A 50-year border dispute over an uninhabited Arctic island is coming to an end when Denmark and Canada agree to end the so-called “Whiskey War”.
Key points:
- Canada and Denmark plan to split the disputed Hans Island into equal halves
- The agreement is largely a symbolic act to show unity between the two NATO allies
- Arid and uninhabited, Hans Island has no known mineral resources
NATO allies have been embroiled in a mostly humorous fight for Hans Island, which has been on the same distance between Greenland and Ellesmere Island in Canada, since 1971, when rival claims come to light for the first time in a bilateral meeting to discuss territorial boundaries.
Since the 1980s, officials, scientists and soldiers from Denmark and Canada have visited the arid island, taking turns to take the other country’s flag and hoist its own.
Their dispute over the island drew wider attention after the media reported an unusual tradition in which visitors left a bottle of Canadian whiskey or Danish schnapps for their rivals to find on their next visit. .
The end of the Whiskey War, as it was dubbed by the media, comes largely as a symbolic act of diplomacy designed to avoid tensions in the far north.
Awaiting parliamentary approval
In 2018, the two countries decided to set up a joint working group to resolve the dispute, ending their decades-long policy of “agreeing to disagreeing.”
This agreement will be formally signed by the ministers of both countries after parliamentary approval.
Canada and Denmark will split the 1.2-square-kilometer island into two nearly equal parts along a natural fissure in the rocky outcrop, according to an agreement released Tuesday by the Danish Foreign Ministry.
With the agreement, Canada and Denmark have established the world’s longest maritime border of 3,882 km, stretching from the Lincoln Sea in the north to the Labrador Sea in the south, the Foreign Ministry said.
ABC / Cables
Posted 2 hours ago Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at 7:54 PM, updated 1 hour, 1 hours ago, Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at 8:15 PM