In Ilulissat, Canada and Denmark vow to settle Hans Island dispute

The agreed international boundary between Canada and Greenland stops at the southern edge of rocky little Hans Island, and then resumes at the island’s northern edge. Now, Canada, Greenland and Denmark say they’re ready to settle the Hans Island issue once and for all. (FILE PHOTO)

The solid black line on this map is the boundary agreed between Canada and Denmark in a 1973 treaty. The broken black line is the agreed-upon 2012 boundary. The broken blue lines indicate 200-nautical-mile economic zones extending into the Arctic Ocean. (FILE IMAGE)

Big commitments on continued Arctic co-operation will flow from the Ilulissat Declaration’s 10th anniversary celebrations yesterday and today in Greenland.

These include the coming into force of the Arctic Council’s agreement on research in the Arctic.

But a smaller commitment made during the meeting to resolve the long-disputed sovereignty of tiny Hans Island, located between Ellesmere Island and northern Greenland, may prove just as significant.

The 1.3-kilometre-island, known as Tartupaluk in Greenlandic due to its bean-like shape, has long been a focal point for international posturing, scheming and squabbling.

That’s because, ever since the 1973 map defining the national boundaries between Canada and Denmark-Greenland left Hans Island out of the boundary line, because neither side can agree on who owns the island.

In 2012, Canadian and Danish ministers reached an agreement on where to establish the boundary in the Lincoln Sea, the body of water north of Ellesmere Island and Greenland, but they didn’t address the issue of sovereignty over Hans Island.

The boundary currently ends at the low-water mark on the island’s south side and starts again from the low-water mark on the north side.

Now, with Greenland, the ministers of Canada and Denmark have agreed to settle that issue through a working group that will make recommendations to resolve outstanding border issues between the two nations.

A Tuesday joint release from the Danish, Greenland and Canadian governments said these recommendations would settle the issue of sovereignty over Hans Island, in addition to the maritime boundary in Lincoln Sea and the overlap in the Labrador Sea continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.

Denmark’s foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, called the agreement “a breakthrough in our joint effort to clarify the question of sovereignty over, among other things, Hans Island.”

“As an Arctic nation, Canada is keen to work with our Arctic neighbors to resolve matters of mutual interest. We are very pleased to address our unresolved border issues through this joint diplomatic working group with our longstanding friend and allies, the Kingdom of Denmark,” Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said in the release.

In 2005, an agreement to negotiate a settlement was signed by Ottawa and Copenhagen, and lawyers from the two foreign ministries have been working on it since.

The new determination to settle Hans Island’s ownership comes after many alternative suggestions for its fate, including the 2015 “Aarhus Declaration” by two academics— Michael Böss and Michael Byers—calling for the island to be put into a “condominium of shared authority.”

Less seriously, in 2006, a Carleton University student announced he had set up the Government of Tartupaluk and declared himself “The Reigning Prince of Tartupaluk.”

A rival group from Greenland then set up the “Tartupaluup Kommunia,” that is, the Community of Hans Island. A couple of other groups wanted Hans Island to become independent.

As well, there were some self-declared “Indigenous” Hans Islanders, called Hans and Hans, who said they want people to come to live on the unpopulated island.