A country disputed for 49 years: Hans Island, 1.3 km2, in the middle of an inlet, the Nares Strait, which flows between the Canadian island of Ellesmere and the autonomous region of Greenland. This strait is barely 40 km wide. Canada and Denmark bicker over it with cases full of whiskey or liquor or maple leaf flags planted on that bean-shaped desert pebble.

This struggle over this confetti is an episode in the disputes that are mounting between Russia, Canada, the United States, Norway and Denmark to delineate their respective exclusive economic zones in the glacial ocean.

On June 13, 2022, Canada and Denmark ended their dispute and signed an agreement that split the island in two, creating the first land border between Canada and Europe.

“The Arctic serves as a beacon of international cooperation where the rule of law prevails”Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told AFP, adding: “As global security is threatened, it has never been more important for democracies like Canada and Denmark to work together with indigenous peoples to resolve our differences in accordance with international law.”.

This deal is suddenly becoming a model for resolving territorial disputes around the world as Russia scrambles to expand its territory in Ukraine after annexing Crimea in 2014.

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod makes this connection by stating that the resolution of the conflict comes at a time when the time has come “The international legal order is under pressure”and that democratic values ​​are “attacked”. He hopes “Inspiring other countries to follow the same path”.

Why this disagreement?

The strait in which the island sits is 22 miles wide, but under international law a country has the right to claim territories 12 miles from its shore. 12 plus 12 is 24 and not 22… So no country could really say that Hans was theirs.

In 1933, the Permanent Court of International Justice, under the aegis of the dissolved League of Nations, gave the island to Denmark. But when the two countries began finalizing their Nares Strait border in 1973, the island emerged as a point of contention. The treaty actually draws a line between 127 points at sea between the two countries, except between two terminals, the 122 (at 80°49’2 latitude and 66°29’0 longitude to be exact) and the 123 (80° 49′ 8 and 66°26’3). A “hole” where Hans’ island would be.

There “whiskey war”

The island is uninhabitable and uninhabited, but sits on an area potentially rich in energy (oil and gas) resources.

In 1984, the Canadian Army landed, raised their flag and left a bottle of whiskey there.
The Danes couldn’t help it. The Minister of Greenland comes in turn, removes the maple leaf flag, hoists the white cross on a Danish red background and leaves behind a bottle of schnapps instead of Canadian alcohol!

Canadian claims resurfaced when prospecting in the area revealed the existence of oil deposits. The Canadian company dome petroleum conducted prospecting campaigns between 1981 and 1983.

But those oil and gas reserves would be too deep and in an iceberg-strewn area that would make any drilling project far too difficult, Michael Byers, a professor of international law and an Arctic expert, said in an interview with the American daily. The New York Times : “It would be extremely expensive oil if we had to drill this deep and at this point in 10, 20 or 30 years. We would have lost our fight against global warming.”

It is precisely this motivation that drives Emmanuel Hussenet, who in 2017 suggested everyone to become a citizen of Hans Island.

A “universal” island

The 55-year-old French explorer hasn’t stopped navigating the Far North on foot or by kayak. In 2003 he paddled the Nelson River 1000km in Canada for two months (summer) with Kim Hafez. Between 2008 and 2011 he launched expeditions called the “Ice Cream Robins”. He left the Qanaaq (Thule) region in 2013-2014 to try to reach Hans Island. He pulls out a book “Ice Robinson”.

At that time he had the idea to create the association “Hans Insula Universalis” and launch a website to try to make this island a symbol of awareness and collective responsibility in the face of the major climate problems.

The site no longer exists today. If we try to click on the link, we see that it is by no means the beautiful utopia dreamed up by Emmanuel Husset. “This project had an aesthetic dimension above all” he explains “and it was very complicated to maintain it. I gave up after a few years”. But what mobilized him back then in 2017 will also apply in 2021 or even longer.

A climate problem

The ice researcher advocated the creation of a cold protection zone to slow down the inevitable global warming and melting of the ice.

“I’ve been thinking about this island for ten years and when I heard the news of its partition between the two countries, I told myself it’s a good start. Because the situation was completely ridiculous.”.

This dispute is a colonial dispute.
Emmanuel Hussenet, discoverer

Emmanuel Hussenet thinks it was misplaced pride “The Canadians wanted to show that they are firmly in position against the Americans.”

But for the explorer, the stakes go beyond the political level and are set on a philosophical level: “It’s a dispute that’s connected to the idea of ​​appropriating things. In terms of territorial legitimacy, when it comes to an inhabited land, with people working, exploiting the land, having one language, one culture, we can say we are creating one nation. There is a logic, albeit an administrative one, to the existence of countries. But in the name of what should that logic be applied to all the little corners of the earth, including natural environments that are not only uninhabitable, but often unusable as they are? This dispute is like a colonial dispute.”

We as humans are unable to think of the common good, a common good that harms no one, since there would be no tangible appropriation of place.
Emmanuel Hussenet, discoverer

A commons

For Emmanuel Hussenet, the question goes beyond the purely practical level at which we want to ask it and takes on a universal dimension, “We realize that as men we are not even able to contemplate the common good, a common good that would not harm anyone since there would be no tangible appropriation of the place. This appropriation is only the projection of a fantasy, a hubris.”

The discoverer wanted to make Hans Island a universal country in order to make this idea of ​​the common good tangible. “In view of global warming, it is important to keep a cold reserve in the north”, he says. Hans Island also symbolized this.

In 2017, on the set of TV5MONDE, he hypothesized that a rope would be stretched between Canada and Denmark to prevent the ice from drifting and melting. Of course nothing happened.

Emmanuel Hussenet even wonders to what extent the international situation plays no part in all this, “Denmark and Canada could be ready to show that negotiations can settle disputes. Maybe it was what’s happening in Ukraine that motivated this. This will be at least one of the positive aspects of the matter, very tenuous…”

For the explorer who has spent more than fifteen years in this area, the challenge lies elsewhere, “It’s a good start, but we don’t see that it’s about the Arctic. They are using the war in Ukraine to emerge from this intractable – and somewhat ridiculous – situation with their heads held high. There is one side: look at what is happening in Ukraine. We won’t fight, we won’t act like them, we will share this territory. Canadians are not losing face to their people or to the United States and the same on the Danish side.This is an opportunity to get rid of this story without harm to anyone.”

A political backlash?

Repel die sinus Any resolution of this unusual conflict has long presented a good opportunity for political backlash for all parties, especially ahead of elections. The American arctic explorer Michael Byers analyzes it like this for AFP, “It was a completely risk-free sovereignty dispute between two NATO allies over a tiny, insignificant island”.

Denmark also feared that losing that battle over Hans Island would undermine its relationship with Greenland, while Canada feared that defeat would weaken its negotiating positions with the United States in a dispute this time. , which is said to be rich in hydrocarbons, is still being developed by the researcher using AFP.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “did not make arctic sovereignty a part of its political identity, which helped bring the temperature down”at least on the Canadian side. “But more importantly, Russia has invaded Ukraine and created the opportune moment to let the world know that the responsible countries are settling their territorial disputes in a peaceful manner.‘, analyzes Professor Byers.