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image source, Alamy Stock Photo
Canada and Denmark have been waging a friendly “whiskey war” over the island since 1971.
Denmark and Canada reached a deal on Tuesday to end nearly 50 years of dispute over ownership of a small, uninhabited Arctic island.
Since 1971, countries “have been fighting” in the “whiskey wars” to settle claims on Hans Island.
Expeditions from Ottawa and Copenhagen have braved icy conditions to plant alcohol bottles on the tiny 1.2 square kilometer rock.
But now the officials have agreed to divide the place roughly by the half.
“As the global security is being threatened, now more than ever it is important for democracies like Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark to work together, hand in hand with indigenous peoples, to resolve our differences in accordance with international law,” said Canadian Foreign Minister , Melanie Joly, reported the Archyde.com agency.
The islet is located next to Greenland, an autonomous territory within Denmark. Therefore, it corresponds to Copenhagen manage certain policies, such as foreign and security.
image source, Thierry Monasse
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly welcomed the pact.
Some see the deal as a sign thatEarctic states of NATO they are drawing closer following Russia’s isolation over its invasion of Ukraine sparked security concerns following decades of calm in the region.
“It really is a signal to the other parties with interests up there that this is the way to do it,” Soren Norby, a military historian at the Royal Danish Defense College, told Archyde.com.
The island is named following the Greenlandic explorer Hans Hendrik, who participated in the first expedition to the island in 1853. It is called Tartupaluk in Greenlandic, which translates as “kidney-shaped”.
prank war
The war of pranks and whiskey bottles began following the countries met to resolve border disputes in the nares straita 35-kilometer-wide channel of cold water that separates Canada and Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
They agreed to create a border across the strait in 1973, but while negotiating, conflicting claims on the small island.
Both Canada and Greenland are within 18 kilometers of the isla Hansallowing them to claim the rock under international law.
In the end they decided to settle the dispute at a later date.
However, Canada made a bold bet for the property in 1984, when he landed troops on the rock.
They quickly planted their maple leaf flag and buried a whiskey bottle Canadian, before returning home.
image source, Gallo Images
Satellite view of Hans Island, in the Nares Strait.
The Danish Minister for Greenland Affairs might not allow such a provocation was kept. Weeks later she left for Hans, where she replaced the offending Canadian symbolism with a Danish flag and a bottle of Copenhagen’s best liquor.
But he went one step further than the Canadians and left with pride a note that said: “Welcome to the Danish island”.
And so the “Whiskey Wars” began.
Over the next 49 years, dozens of Canadians and Danes participated in the ritual and visitors to the island describe a sea of flags and notes left on the spot.
Finally, in 2018, the countries decided to establish a joint working group to resolve the disputeending his decades-long policy of “agreeing to disagree.”
The pact will be signed once both countries grant parliamentary approval and will see the island divided along a natural cleft on the rocky outcrop, according to an agreement published by the Danish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
Once signed, Canada and Denmark will have established the longest sea border in the world with 3,882 kilometers.
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