Today, the 12th Meeting of the Argentina-Chile Ad-Hoc Committee on Political Coordination in Matters relating to Antarctica was held at the Palacio San Martín and was attended by representatives of the offices in charge of Antarctica-related matters from the Argentine and Chilean Foreign Ministries, as well as by officials of the Chilean Embassy in Argentina.
The Chilean Ambassador to Argentina, José Antonio Viera-Gallo; the Director for Antarctic Affairs of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, Minister-Counsellor Julio Méndez Olave, and the Acting Director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), Edgardo VEGA ARTIGUES, attended the meeting representing Chile, and they were received by the Undersecretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic (SUMAS), Ambassador María Teresa Kralikas; the National Director for Antarctic Foreign Policy, Minister Máximo Gowland; the National Director for Antarctica, Minister Fernanda Millicay, and the Director of the Argentine Antarctic Institute, Rodolfo Sánchez.
This Committee, which holds biannual meetings, was created under the Joint Presidential Statement of 16 March 2012 and has demonstrated, since then, its effectiveness as an instrument to bilaterally coordinate positions at the main Antarctic fora and to articulate scientific and logistics cooperation under the Antarctic Treaty (AT) and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
Some of the issues discussed at this meeting were the joint project for the creation of a Marine Protected Area in the Antarctic Peninsula, which will be presented at the 36th Meeting of the CCAMLR to be held in October; the joint inspections to be undertaken pursuant to Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty and Article 14 of the Environment Protocol, as well as the implementation status of the Memorandum of Understanding signed last December between the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA in Spanish) and the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH in Spanish), among other multilateral and bilateral issues.
In this context, in which bilateral relations between Argentina and Chile are at one of their best moments, this political coordination mechanism consolidates the strategic relationship between the two countries with regard to Antarctica, based on a dynamic and fruitful dialogue that has resulted in valuable concrete cooperation results in recent years.
Press release No. 378/17
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