On 9 September, the 10th Meeting of the "Argentina-Chile Ad-Hoc Committee on Political Coordination in Matters Relating to Antarctica" took place at the Palacio San Martín. Representatives of the offices in charge of Antarctica-related matters from the Argentine and the Chilean Ministries of Foreign Affairs attended the meeting, as well as representatives of the Chilean Embassy in Argentina.
The Director of Antarctic Affairs of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Francisco BERGUÑO, and the Director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), Mr. José RETAMALES, attended the meeting representing Chile, and they were received by the Deputy Foreign Minister, Ambassador Carlos FORADORI, and by the Undersecretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Ambassador María Teresa KRALIKAS.
This Committee, created under the "Joint Presidential Statement" of 16 March 2012, has demonstrated, in each of its biannual meetings, its usefulness to coordinate positions at the main Antarctic fora and to articulate scientific and logistics cooperation in the context of the Antarctic Treaty (AT) and of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
Some of the issues discussed at this 10th meeting of the Ad-Hoc Committee were those relating to the 39th “Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting” (ATCM), held in Santiago de Chile from 23 May to 1 June 2016, as well as some aspects of the coordination of positions for the upcoming meeting in the context of the “Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources” (CCAMLR), which will take place in Hobart, Australia, on 17-28 October 2016. Among the issues relating to the CCAMLR, a special focus will be placed on the project jointly coordinated by Argentina and Chile for the creation of a marine protected area (MPA) in the Antarctic peninsula.
In addition, participants will consider the issue of joint inspections of third-party Antarctic stations, under Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty (AT) and Article 14 of the Protocol on Environmental Protection. The first of these inspections, carried out jointly for the first time, was performed in February 2016 with logistics provided by Chile. Stations from five countries and a non-governmental refuge were inspected. In the context of this meeting, the possibility of performing a second joint exercise will be analyzed, this time with Argentine logistics.
Finally, it should be noted that this Committee is considering the execution of a "Framework Cooperation Agreement" for scientific and technical cooperation between the Antarctic Institutes of both countries, the IAA and the INACH.
This tenth meeting of the Ad-Hoc Committee and the joint work done by both countries within this framework is another example of the excellent status of their bilateral relationship, as evidenced by their coordination and cooperation in the Antarctic field.
Press release No. 302/16.
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