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Comment by berkes | Hacker News Reader

A related story is the border between Belgium and the Netherlands that was recently moved[1].

Not because some war was imminent, but because of very practical reasons: Belgian police could only reach that piece of Belgium by boat; so "exchanging it with NL" was the easiest, because the Dutch police could just drive there.

It makes me happy to see that we're down to "practical exchanges of land" from centuries of war over the most silly pole, church or "slight".

[1] https://nos.nl/artikel/2112869-nederland-krijgt-belgisch-sch... Dutch only, sorry.

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Or the Whisky War over Hans Island, which the Canadians claim and leave a bottle of (Canadian) whisky, upon which the Danish claim it and leave a bottle of (Danish) snaps, ad infinitum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_War

I can see a business in there somewhere.

It's pretty significant right? Island typically procure claims over a large surrounding area, and there's quite a bit of resources in the arctic.

I think FabHK is referring to not the strategic advantage of "owning" that island but rather how that border-conflict is managed. Instead of stationing soldiers who shoot on sight, they manage the conflict by exchanging liquor.

What are the logistics regarding nationality and property within the exchanged land? Are the inhabitants now dutch, or Belgians who now own Dutch property?

I don’t know about this case, but typically this is uninhabited, unimproved land that is exchanged.

I had assumed that the land was occupied because the motivation for the exchange mentioned in the article are reports of crime (nudity, drugs) that Belgian police can't easily attend to. It is likely the suspects were visitors to the area.

Dutchie here, FTA :

> wordt geklaagd over drugsoverlast, afval en naaktloperij

So the actual problems are complaints about drug users, illegal trash dumping and nudism. And the negotiations only took 5 years.

>And the negotiations only took 5 years.

Yeaaaah I'm gonna point fingers to Belgium tho.

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