Sunday, September 18, 2005

Civilized solution

It shouldn't be a great surprise, but Canada and Denmark have apparently reached agreement on a process to resolve the Hand Island dispute:
Insiders say Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and his Danish counterpart, Per Stig Moller, plan to announce in New York that the two countries will draft a protocol for managing their dealings over the tiny island...

The longstanding dispute now moves from the political arena to the realm of bureaucrats, who will develop a set of mutually agreed rules.

They would address such issues as notification of the other country in advance of an official visit to the island.

To some extent, it's frustrating to see top officials of both countries putting as much time as they have into such a minor dispute. But at the very least, all that time seems to be moving the two states toward a constructive resolution.

(Edit: Typo.)

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