Greenland Gets Its First Land Border
The island of Hans Ø, with the Inuit name of Tartupaluk, will be half Canadian and half Greenlandic, according to Sermitsiaq. The island is small, only 1.3 km2, however, the discussions about what country the island belongs to have run high since 1973.
However, they have been rather peaceful and story has it that Danish soldiers have used to leave a bottle of snaps to their Canadian counterparts, whereas the Canadian soldiers often have left a bottle of whisky for the Danes after their lowering the Danish flag.
The border will follow a natural crevasse in the landscape crossing the island. This will be Greenland’s first land border against another country, and Denmark’s second.
The agreement is to be signed in Canada Tuesday afternoon by the Danish and the Canadian foreign ministers, as well as by Greenland’s Premier Mute B. Egede.