Canada-Denmark ties get icy over Arctic isle

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MONTREAL -- A barren desert island in the High Arctic populated only by seals and the occasional polar bear is at the center of a diplomatic tiff between otherwise friendly Canada and Denmark after Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham quietly set foot on the disputed land last week.

Hans Island, a round frozen outcrop in the middle of the Kennedy Channel that separates Greenland from Canada's Ellesmere Island, is claimed by both Arctic nations.

The Danish Foreign Ministry issued an official note of protest to Canada's ambassador in Copenhagen on Monday after learning of Mr. Graham's decision to personally "invade" Hans Island and reinforce Canada's claim over it.

"Denmark still maintains its position that this island is Danish territory," said Poul Erik Dam Kristensen, Denmark's ambassador to Canada.

"We regret that this visit was taken without prior notification. And we reiterate our suggestion that the two parties sit down and resume consultations and resolve the issue on the basis of international law."

Mr. Kristensen said the last time Canada and Denmark held consultations about their boundary in the Arctic was in 1971. The two parties could not come to a consensus on Hans Island and "agreed to disagree" on the issue.

The island is so small that it doesn't show on most maps, but researchers say the Arctic is warming so quickly that the rich natural resources of the area will be open for exploitation within a few decades.

Canada also thinks that if it doesn't draw a line in the snow over Hans Island, its credibility and position in a far more important boundary dispute with the United States over the Beaufort Sea will be undermined.

Denmark fears that relations with Greenland, its giant overseas territory, will be undermined if it fails to protect what many Greenlanders consider rightfully theirs.

So the two NATO allies have been engaged in a tit-for-tat policy of visiting the island to reinforce their claims to it.