MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina, Chile say they'll surmount consulate incident.

The governments of Argentina and Chile agreed Tuesday that the “excellence” of their bilateral ties will make it possible to surmount the flap created when two Chilean army spies were caught burglarizing an Argentine consulate in the neighboring country.

In a joint communique, the two governments used the word "deplorable" to describe the incident Sunday at Argentina's legation in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas.

"It is precisely the high level of diplomatic and government relations between the two countries that has permitted us to give this regrettable matter the appropriate treatment, making possible an immediate reaction, the determination of responsibility, the adoption of relevant sanctions and the decision to achieve the full clarification of the events," the statement read.

Presidents Nestor Kirchner of Argentina and Ricardo Lagos of Chile are committed, the communique added, to further bolstering the bilateral ties "that have permitted a permanent coordination in matters of regional and global interest. " The joint statement was issued only hours after Argentina said it was unsatisfied with Chile's explanation to date of what Buenos Aires called the "grave" offense committed by Chilean intelligence agents caught burglarizing the consular office. "It's very suspicious that this situation comes at a time when Argentina and Chile have never been so close to resolving bilateral problems and border issues," Defense Minister Jose Pampuro said here. Although he praised the Chilean government's "alacrity" in reacting to Sunday's incident, Pampuro said "the issue in and of itself is grave because it violated a foreign country's diplomatic offices in a totally clandestine way."

Two high-ranking officers of the Chilean army were dismissed Monday as a result of the break-in, and President Lagos quickly ordered a review of all military intelligence methods and procedures. The scandal comes just as Argentina and Chile are enjoying remarkably positive relations, especially in the area of defense.

The two countries were on the brink of war in 1978 for disputes over the rights to the Beagle Channel.

According to Chile's official version of Sunday's burglary, two members of army intelligence - acting "independently and without orders" - broke in to the Argentine Consulate in Punta Arenas, 2,400 kilometers (1,491 miles) south of Santiago and near the countries' shared border. The incident was reported by Jose Andres Basbus, Argentina's vice consul in the city, who walked in on the intruders and scuffled with one of them as they tried to steal documents.

"We will continue to have the same need, enthusiasm and will to deepen our relations with our sister nation of Chile, but we are asking to have a more solid response regarding this terrible incident and to get to the bottom of the motives behind it," Pampuro said Tuesday.

The minister said his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, told him that investigators in her office were pursuing "two or three working theories." "They span from internal motives of the Chilean police to situations that have to be clarified by that country's military forces," Pampuro said in statements to Todo Noticias television.

But Pampuro also mentioned "an issue related to (commercial) flights" to the Falkland Islands, the South Atlantic archipelago that was the object of Argentina's losing war with Britain in 1982. According to a story published Monday in the Buenos Aires daily Clarin, Argentina rejected a request last week from Lan Chile, the only airline serving the Falklands, to add a second weekly flight from Santiago to the islands with a stopover in Punta Arenas.

Conversely, the chief of staff of Argentina's Foreign Ministry, Eduardo Valdez, related Sunday's incident to "unpleasant memories of the past" and said it had nothing to do with flights to the Falklands.

According to the Chilean ambassador in Argentina, Juan Gabriel Valdes, the alleged case of espionage is "absurd" and "if it weren't for the gravity of violating the consulate of a foreign country, it would just be an episode from a ridiculous movie." "We fully support the Argentine government's idea that Argentine airlines should provide this service," he told local television in Buenos Aires about the issue of flights to the Falklands.