Eminol | Norway | Sweden | Denmark | Sikunews | Hindi | Tamil | Polsk

Sunday 05.02.2012

Hans again

Canada's focus on Arctic sovereignty may heat up dispute over Hans Island.

With Canada's recent announcement that the government will spend Can $3.1 billion to acquire six to eight offshore patrol ships and to build a deep water port in the Arctic, some worry this will lead to more tension over who owns Tartupaluk, known as Hans Island in English, reports Sermitsiaq.



The 1.3 square kilometre island is claimed by Canada and Greenland, and can be important if oil is discovered in the area.

Tartupaluk’s location in the Nares Strait between Canada and Greenland means the island may become an important outpost in the Northwest Passage as ice-free months increase.

The country that has rights to the island will be able to require that ships sailing through its territorial waters live up to safety regulations.

Over the past several years, both the Canadian and the Danish governments have sent representatives to the island to reinforce their claims to it.

Here are facts about the island at the centre of the 30-year dispute between Denmark and Canada, compiled by Ritzau.



* The dispute began in 1973 when an international border between Canada and Greenland was being drawn up. Hans Island was declared ‘no man’s land’.

* In 1984, Danish Greenland Minister Tom Høyem visited Hans Island. He raised the Danish flag, and left a message stating, ‘Welcome to this Danish island’.

* The dispute flared up in 2005 when Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham visited Hans Island without informing the Danish government. One week prior, Canadian forces had raised the Maple Leaf on the island and build a stone marker.

* Later that year, the two countries’ foreign ministers met in New York and agreed to find a solution to the dispute. Since then, a number of meetings have been held.

* In the spring of 2007, a Danish and a Canadian professor agreed to build a joint weather station on Hans Island.>