In the framework of the 94th plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly, a new resolution was adopted that revitalizes the “South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone” (SAPCZ), whose last resolution dated from 2015.
In this new resolution approved on July 29, the role of the SAPCZ as a forum for increased interaction, coordination and cooperation among its member states is highlighted, among other issues.
The SAPCZ was established in 1986 through Resolution 41/11 of the United Nations General Assembly and constitutes a forum that links South America and Africa, bringing together 24 coastal states of the South Atlantic. In addition, it is a platform where Argentina continually reaffirms its sovereign rights over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgias, South Sandwich and the surrounding maritime spaces. In this forum, the British military presence in the South Atlantic is usually condemned and the importance of not allowing the presence of nuclear weapons in that area is reaffirmed.
The Secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus, highlighted that the “recovery of the activity of the SAPCZ, after several years in which it had not put forward resolutions to the UN General Assembly, is a sign of the interest of members States from Latin American and African in preserving the region from the interests of the great powers and maintaining it as a zone of peace and cooperation ”.
Argentina has worked together with Brazil and Uruguay to relaunch this initiative, which means a wide space for cooperation, not only on issues related to security and defense, but also on other issues such as exploration and mapping of the seabed and oceanographic research, cooperation on environmental issues, marine environment and living resources protection and conservation, and marine scientific research, among others.
"Argentina played an important role in keeping this group alive and stated that, in the context of UN resolutions, one of its main objectives is to end colonialism in the South Atlantic," added Filmus.
The Argentine Government made an intervention at the United Nations in which it highlighted the idea of the South Atlantic as a geostrategic space, the importance of its incalculable natural resources for sustainable development and the cooperation of the Atlantic countries of Latin America and the African members of the SAPCZ. Likewise, Argentina highlighted the relevance of the South Atlantic as a central axis for understanding climate change at a global level.
The relaunch in 2020 of Pampa Azul in Argentina was also highlighted, as a multidisciplinary strategic initiative aimed at promoting scientific knowledge as an indispensable basis for decisions on ocean policy.
On the other hand, it was pointed out that the Declaration of Montevideo adopted in 2013, in the framework of the Seventh Ministerial Meeting of the Zone, reflected the convergence of views among the members regarding issues that are still extremely delicate, such as the need to continue fighting to put an end, quickly and unconditionally, to colonialism in all its forms. On that occasion, the members of the Zone had expressed their concern about the continuation of situations that negatively affect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of some Member States of the Zone, such as the Question of the Malvinas Islands, which affects the territorial integrity of Argentina. In this context, the efforts to promote the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes and the search for negotiated solutions to territorial conflicts that affect them, in accordance with international law, in particular the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the General Assembly and its Special Committee on Decolonization, were highlighted.
Finally, the importance of the status conferred on the Zone as a zone not only of peace and cooperation, but as a nuclear weapons free zone, was stressed, as an effort that is part of the ideas of peace and security that gave rise to the United Nations itself, and even in various regional and subregional organizations to which the States of the Zone belong. That is why Argentina considered it necessary to recall, within this framework, Resolution 41/11, which exhorts all States of all other regions, especially the militarily important States, to scrupulously respect the South Atlantic Region as a Zone of Peace and Cooperation, in particular through the reduction and eventual elimination of its military presence in the region and the non-introduction of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction.
