End of ‘Whiskey Wars’: Denmark and Canada reach deal to end 50-year dispute over Arctic islet

Denmark Y Canada reached an agreement Tuesday to end nearly 50 years of disputes over the ownership of a small, uninhabited Arctic island.

Since 1971, countries “have been fighting” in the “whiskey wars” to settle claims on Hans Island.

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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 and hand in hand with indigenous peoples, to resolve our differences in accordance with international law”, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada , Melanie Joly, reported the Reuters 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.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly welcomed the pact. Thierry Monasse

Some see the deal as a sign that NATO arctic states they are drawing closer after Russia’s isolation over its invasion of Ukraine sparked security concerns after 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 Reuters.

The island is named after the Greenlandic explorer Hans Hendrik, who participated in the first expedition to the island in 1853. It is called Tartupaluk in Greenlandic, which translates to “kidney-shaped.”

prank war

The war of pranks and whiskey bottles began after 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 hans islandallowing 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.

Satellite view of Hans Island, in the Nares Strait. ROOSTER IMAGES

The Danish Minister for Greenland Affairs could 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 read: “Welcome to the Danish island.”

And so began the “whiskey wars”.

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 quarrelending its 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.

Source: Elcomercio