Denmark and Canada have resolved a battle lasting nearly 50 years by establishing a land border on the disputed Hans Island.
Over the final half century, the disagreement over the island within the far north between Canada and Greenland occupied 26 Canadian overseas ministers, Ottawa’s prime diplomat Melanie Joly mentioned Tuesday at a ceremony within the Canadian capital with Danish counterpart Jeppe Kofod and Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute B Egede.
The small unpopulated Hans Island was not included in a 1973 border settlement, and each international locations claimed the land – a barren rock with no identified uncooked supplies – as their very own.
For a couple of years this led to a curious ritual. When one nation made an expedition to the 1.3 square-kilometre island south of the North Pole, they’d take away the opposite nation’s flag hoist their very own. They would additionally go away a bottle of native spirits there. This grew to become identified as the whisky conflict.
“I believe it was the friendliest of all wars,” Joly mentioned, stressing the significance of the peaceable settlement of a border dispute in gentle of the continuing Russian conflict in opposition to Ukraine.
“We know that we are able to work collectively via diplomacy to settle disputes based mostly on guidelines and rules,” Kofod mentioned. “Diplomacy and the rule of regulation truly works.”
After signing the settlement, they exchanged two bottles of liquor.
Greenland, an Arctic island, is a part of the dominion of Denmark. Though it’s largely self-governing, Denmark remains to be liable for its overseas and defence insurance policies. – dpa
