The 14th Meeting of the Argentina-Chile Ad-Hoc Committee on Political Coordination in Matters relating to Antarctica was held at the Palacio San Martín co-chaired by the Undersecretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, María Teresa Kralikas, and the Director for Antarctic Affairs of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, Camilo Sanhueza.
This Committee, which has been holding biannual meetings since 2012, is an instrument to bilaterally coordinate positions at the main Antarctic fora and to organize scientific and logistics cooperation under the Antarctic Treaty (AT) and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the offices in charge of Antarctica-related matters from the Argentine and Chilean Foreign Ministries, the Argentine Antarctic Joint Command and the Chilean Undersecretariat for Defence, as well as officials of the Chilean Embassy in Argentina.
The main issues discussed at this meeting include the joint work for the submission by Argentina and Chile of a proposal for the creation of a Marine Protected Area in the Antarctic Peninsula at the 37th Meeting of the CCAMLR to be held in October in Hobart, Australia; the implementation status of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2016 between the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA) and the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH); and the course of action to be taken based on the outcome of the 41st Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) held last May in Buenos Aires, among other various multilateral and bilateral issues.
At this historic momento for the bilateral relations between Argentina and Chile, this political coordination mechanism consolidates the strategic relationship between the two countries with regard to Antarctica, based on dynamic and fruitful dialogue that has resulted in valuable and concrete cooperation results in recent years.
Press Release No. 386/18