Circumpolar matters
Dispute over Hans Island nears resolution. Now for the Beaufort Sea 
(John Ibbitson /Globe and Mail, 27 January 2011) -- Negotiators are now confident that Canada and Denmark will resolve their dispute over Hans Island, and sooner rather than later. Relations between the two countries have grown irritable at times in recent years because of their competing claims to the barren bit of rock perched halfway between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. Also in dispute is a patch of the Lincoln Sea even farther north. But the two countries are in negotiations and have embarked on a joint mapping exercise, and both Canadian and Danish officials, speaking on background, said they were confident of reaching an agreement before Canada deposits its claim over the Arctic seabed to the United Nations in 2013. Shared jurisdiction of the island is one possibility; another is running the border down the middle of the uninhabited, 1.3-square-kilometre knoll, which would give Canada a land border with Denmark. In a recent poll, a large majority of Canadians said that asserting and protecting Arctic sovereignty should be Canada’s foremost foreign policy priority. In a statement to The Globe and Mail, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon insisted that it was. “We continue to exercise our sovereignty in the Arctic while also making progress on outstanding boundary issues,” Mr. Cannon said. In fact, negotiations are beginning to bear fruit after years in which Canada refused to discuss competing claims. The United States and Canada have long disagreed over where the border between Alaska and Yukon should be drawn, as it projects into the Beaufort Sea. While the Americans have sought a negotiated settlement, Canada preferred to agree to disagree. But there is oil under the seabed, and petroleum companies are anxious to get at it.
Posted 27 January 2011; 4:52:48 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, International, January11
email to: agra...@yukoncollege.yk.ca
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