A new land border appeared!

Some of you might have heard of the Whisky War. This was a pseudo-confrontation between Canada and Denmark. In 1984, Canadian soldiers "provoked" Denmark by planting its flag on a disputed island and leaving a bottle of Canadian whisky. The Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs came to the island himself the same year with the Danish flag, a bottle of Cognac, and a letter stating "Welcome to the Danish Island".

The two countries proceeded to take turns planting their flags on the island and exchanging alcoholic beverages. I wish I had such a neighbor!

So what disputed island are we talking about? It's called Hans Island, an uninhabited rock. It lies in the far North of the globe, between Greenland and the Canadian island Ellesmere. Despite being located in between the largest and tenth largest island in the world, Hans Island is rather small with an area of about 1 square kilometer. Because it lies exactly on the maritime border between Denmark and Canada, the Whisky War happened. But the war is over. Officially!

On 11 June 2022, the Danish and Canadian governments agreed to split Hans Island in half after 17 years of negotiations. The treaty will take effect after the relevant political entities have each voted to approve it.

By this, Canada and the Danish Realm, through Greenland, will have an international land border of 1,280 m (4,200 ft). On ratification, the island will contain one of the top four shortest land borders between countries, and would create a second land neighbour for Canada and for the Danish Realm, each of which only had one, with the United States and Germany respectively. It will also create the most northerly international land border in the world.

The new land border will be like the land border between Brazil and France through French Guiana or the border between The Netherlands and France through Saint Martin. Several quizes from the border section of Jetpunk will be influenced, depending on definitions and caveats. Probably it should be discussed how this agreement will be implemented on Jetpunk. Perhaps a discussion is already ongoing behind the scenes.

All in all, an interesting development!