TORONTO – It is a barren and inhospitable rock that climbs a frozen canal in the Arctic. A geologist who visited it described it as “not a very fascinating island”. A Canadian legal analyst once tried to pinpoint it on a map in a presentation he made to lawmakers, but admitted that its size made it “very difficult to see.” “We do not have a big blast picture to show you,” he said. For nearly five decades, however, Canada and Denmark have quarreled – mostly, but not always, politely – over the not-so-exciting Hans Island, a mass of 0.5 square miles on the Kennedy Canal in the narrow Nares that hosts none of the two vegetation or wildlife. The steep dislocation – Tartupaluk in Inuit – is located between the island of Ellesmere in Canada and Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Now, at last, there is an approach to the controversy called “Flag War” or “Whiskey War”. Officials from both countries, as well as Greenland, signed an agreement Tuesday to resolve the long-running dispute – the last remaining dispute over a land border in the Arctic – with the Solomonic solution to split the island in two. Denmark has about 60 percent of the island. Canada gets the rest. “I think he was the friendliest of all the wars,” Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, told reporters in Ottawa. “I am glad to see that we are resolving it with friends, partners and allies. … It’s a win-win-win. “ To get to this Canadian island, mail passes through Maine. Now US agents are opening it. Both Canada and Denmark cited the “historic” agreement as an example of how border disputes can be resolved peacefully, without war or fierce legal disputes, at a time when rule-based international order is under pressure – in partly reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “As we stand here today, we are seeing a blatant violation of international rules in another part of the world,” said Jepe Kofont, Denmark’s foreign minister. “On the contrary, we have shown how long-standing international disputes can be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rules.” The dispute dates back to 1973, when Canadian and Danish diplomats set up a sea border in the Arctic. The line crossed the island of Hans straight. The diplomats left unanswered the question of what to do about it. In the five decades that followed, Danish troops visited the rocky mass several times, hoisting their flag and leaving a note and a bottle of drink to claim the country on the island. The Canadians have also made appearances, replacing the Danish drink with Canadian whiskey, setting up an inox – a stone marker – and lifting the maple leaf. In at least one case, the Canadians lowered a Danish flag and sent it back to Copenhagen. (There was almost a glimpse of officials in both countries about the fate of the various bottles of alcohol.) In the early 2000s, the Danes twice sent frigates with soldiers to the island, as Robert Huebert, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, cited the example of cannon diplomacy. “By all accounts, this has led to war,” he said. Lawmakers in Canada have occasionally cited the dispute over Hans Island as an example of the government of the time doing little to defend its Arctic interests. Residents of this remote Canadian island village are receiving government money to clear up. A couple lives. “Danish soldiers are landing in Canadian Arctic, raising their flag, claiming the island as their own, and Canada is doing nothing,” a Conservative lawmaker accused in 2004. [then-Prime Minister Paul Martin] will he speak out and defend Canada? “ A further escalation came in 2005, when then Bill Graham The Minister of Defense of Canada, traveled to the island of Hans to walk himself on the icy ground. This provoked an official note of protest from Danish officials. “We would like to keep what modus vivendi was,” Poul Erik Dam Kristensen, then Danish ambassador to Canada, told the Globe and Mail that “if one of the parties visits the island, the party notifies another place”. The Canadians have strongly argued that they should not do this – because it was their island. In 2009, Danish Vice Admiral Nils Wang told a Canadian parliamentary defense committee that the last thing he heard was “we agree we disagree”. “At least from the Danish navy point of view, the foreign ministry told us not to go there and put flags on the island anymore,” said Wang, who is now retired. Alan Kessel, legal adviser to the Canadian Foreign Ministry, assured another parliamentary committee in 2012 that the country “is not going to go to war with Denmark.” “I can promise you,” he said. “It is managed. It’s a rock and we will face it. “ The Canadian government said it had consulted the Inuit of Greenland and the Canadian territory of Nunavut during the negotiation of the agreement and would “ensure continued access and free movement throughout the island” for fishing and other cultural activities. Huebert said there was a “fairly remote” possibility of natural resources such as oil and gas on the island, but noted that no serious efforts had been made to address them. Canada, he added, has many other unresolved Arctic disputes, including with the United States on the Northwest Passage. After the signing of the agreement with applause, Jolie and Coffod exchanged alcohol and notes for the last time. There would be no doubt about what the Canadians planned to do with their bottle. Go “straight” to the Canadian History Museum, Jolie said.
