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| Canada and Denmark End Whiskey War, Isle of Hans Divided |
International Military - Canada and Denmark have finally officially agreed to halve Hans Island, which lies in the middle of their Arctic border, between themselves. Tuesday's binding agreement ended a decades-long territorial dispute dubbed the "whiskey wars" by the media.
Under the agreement, about 60% of the island is controlled by Denmark and 40% is controlled by Canada. This small, uninhabited half-square-mile island is located in the Kennedy Strait in the Nares Strait, 1,100 km south of the North Pole.
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The strait is located between the northwest coast of Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island. When the two countries agreed in 1973 to draw the border through the strait, they delayed deciding who would have the barren land in the middle, leading to a series of petty squabbles that came to be known as the "whiskey wars" because of the strange way in which the countries marked their territory. .
In 1984, Denmark's Minister of Greenlandic Affairs started the tradition by raising the Danish flag on the island and burying a bottle of Danish schnapps at the bottom, accompanied by a note that read "Welcome to the island of Denmark." Canada responded in kind, planting its own flag on a bottle of Canadian brandy.
The two countries went back and forth, leaving flags and bottles as they pleased until this year, when they decided, “The time has come to send an important signal now that there is a lot of war and unrest in the world. This sends a clear signal that it is possible to resolve border disputes in a pragmatic and peaceful way, in which all parties win,” said Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly agreed, stressing, "When you look at what's happening in the world right now," referring specifically to the conflict in Ukraine, "we really want to give it more momentum and renew our energy to ensure that we will looking for a solution." The foreign ministers of the two countries exchanged each other's bottles of liquor for the last time on Tuesday, formally concluding what Joly called, "The friendliest war of all wars."
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