The Danes are coming!

For real.
It’s full steam ahead for a Danish frigate on it’s way to Hans Island.
The ongoing spat with Denmark over a 1.3 square kilometer island in the Arctic continues it’s 32 year run.

It’s all about sovereignty and diplomats and military types and the Canadian Defense Minister are talking this piece of rock very seriously.

It’s Denmark’s turn. I guess if the Danish frigate manages to get through the ice, they’ll knock down the Inukshuk, take down the Canadian flag and plant theirs.

In 1973, Canada and Denmark drew a border down the inhospitable Nares Strait halfway between Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, and Canada’s Ellesmere Island.

But the countries decided that sovereignty over Hans Island, roughly 1,100 kilometres south of the North Pole, and others in the Arctic region would be determined later.

Last month, Denmark sent a letter to Canadian Ambassador Fredericka Gregory, protesting that Canada’s Defence Minister Bill Graham set foot on the island a few weeks earlier without giving the Danish government advance notice of his visit.

“If we manage to reach the island, we will hoist a new Danish flag. We’re trying to change the flags as often as possible because they are quickly torn apart by the strong winds,” Jensen said by telephone from the Danish navy base on Greenland’s west coast.

“As it looks now, the ice situation may not allow us to reach the island. But we will try to get as far north as possible,” he said. Danish navy ships have only been able to visit the island three times since 1988 because of the thick Arctic ice around it.

Unbelievable.
If forcasts are true and it’s possible there will be a viable Northwest Passage in 25 years then let’s share, and get on with it.
It is really difficult, given the vastness and harshness of the Arctic to take this tiff seriously.
What is even more foolish is that we’ve had this spat for so long. There are enough rocks for everyone. Did Canada bury a gift to warm up the Danish crew if they get there?

In 1984, Denmark’s minister of Greenland affairs raised a Danish flag on the island.

He then buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flagpole and left a note saying “Welcome to the Danish island.”

It’s a long tough trip for the frigate and her crew.
Velkommen!