Hans off Hans, says Denmark
Canada's ambassador to Denmark, Fredericka Gregory, was summoned to the Danish foreign ministry on Monday for talks.
Published: 26.07.2005 14:09
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - Denmark has protested against an unannounced visit last week by the defence minister of Canada to a small and uninhabitable island in the Arctic claimed by both countries.
Defence Minister Bill Graham stopped on Hans Island, north of Greenland, on Wednesday while on a whirlwind tour of Canada's Arctic military posts, to survey the barren patch of land that sits on the boundary between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Denmark's Greenland.
The dispute over the island, which is less than 100 metres (yards) wide, dates back to 1973 when the border was drawn between Canada and Greenland, which is part of Denmark.
Canada's ambassador to Denmark, Fredericka Gregory, was summoned to the Danish foreign ministry on Monday for talks.
"We said that we deplored the visit which was not announced to Denmark in advance, and we recalled that Hans Island has been part of Greenland since its discovery in 1852 during an expedition" conducted by Denmark and Greenland, the foreign ministry's chief legal counsel, Peter Taksoee-Jensen, told AFP.
The snow-covered site is uninhabitable, but the onset of global warming is expected to bring ship traffic to the region soon and open it up to mining, fishing or drilling for oil and gas.
Danes and Canadians have visited it often to lay claim to it.
In 2003, the crew of a frigate landed on the island and erected a Danish flag. Four years ago, Canadian geologists flew to the island and Canadian energy companies have surveyed the surroundings, according to reports.
Mid-July, Canadian forces erected a plaque, the Canadian flag and an Inuit stone marker called an inukshuk on the island.
Taksoee-Jensen said Copenhagen "reacted quickly" to Graham's visit because Denmark does not want to see "a deterioration of the possibility for future negotiations on the status of the island, which should be resolved amicably between the two countries."
"We should try to find a bilateral solution," he said.
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