Deal on Hans Island still to be mapped out

Pettigrew meets Danish minister Countries to study claims over rock

UNITED NATIONS—

Call it gumboot diplomacy.

After days of rumours that Canada and Denmark would declare a truce over their warring claims to disputed Hans Island in the Arctic, the two countries agreed on more study before drawing a line in the sand.

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew yesterday met with his Danish counterpart, Per Stig Moller, seeking ways to draft a protocol that would make the small rocky island’s future status clear. But he emphasized Ottawa would not back down on its sovereignty claim.

“ Canada has to be quite clear at this time that it will be firm about its sovereignty; in the north included,” Pettigrew told reporters after the meeting. But he added, “ we will resolve the issue; we will put this issue behind us. Therefore, we will have our officials sit down together and gather all the information necessary,” including “ digging up old maps from 40 years ago, the things that make both countries claim sovereignty over Hans Island.”

Yesterday’s discussion, Pettigrew said, focused on “ how we could find a process to move forward and resolve the dispute in a satisfactory manner.” Canada and Denmark are usually allies in foreign policy. But the issue of Hans Island has raised hackles on both sides over the rock between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland, controlled by Denmark. Among other things, a future agreement would lay down rules for notifying each country in advance of an official visit to the island — something that failed to happen when Defence Minister Bill Graham unexpectedly touched down there in July. Boundaries for the waters around the island were set in 1973, eliminating problems over fishing rights and prospective oil and gas rights on the continental shelf.

“( Hans Island) fits a scenario of much larger concerns of Canada, relating to other parts of the north,” Yukon MP Larry Bagnell said yesterday.

“ Canadians are nervous about those areas.” Hans Island is one of the handful of international territorial disputes that have simmered in recent years. After the Falklands war with Argentina in 1982, Britain is still grappling with Spain over 300- year-old rival claims to the enclave of Gibraltar.