MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Taiana confirms Argentina's claim over Antarctic seabed

Taiana joins the 350 miles continental shelf minerals rush

Argentina is collecting information and preparing presentations for seabed claims in the South Atlantic and Antarctica confirmed this week Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana.

Following reports in the British press that the UK had increased the list of claims of seabed rights to include a large chunk off Antarctica, an area of over a million square kilometers, The Buenos Aires Herald contacted Mr. Taiana who acknowledged Argentina would also be filing a claim. "We are working intensively in our presentation in defense of our national interest and our legitimate sovereign rights," said Taiana. The claims are in the framework of the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention, and the 2009 deadline, which allows coastal states to extend their rights over the ocean floor on an adjacent continental shelf up to 350 miles from shore. Submitting countries must demonstrate, with detailed geological and depth soundings, precisely the outer limits of the shelf. Coastal states would then be entitled to exploit mineral and oil and gas resources However these applications may be limited by rival claims from neighboring states as would be the case in Antarctica and the South Atlantic. The UK press pointed out that the claim on the Antarctica seabed will be most controversial because the British Antarctic Territory overlaps rival claims by Chile and Argentina. According to a Foreign Office spokes person Britain has already submitted to the United Nations a joint claim with France, Spain and the Irish Republic for part of the Bay of Biscay; is in discussions with Iceland, Ireland and Denmark on a joint claim in the Hattan-Rockall area off the west coast of Scotland and is working on a claim around Ascension island in mid Atlantic and the Falkland Islands and South Georgia in the South Atlantic another area of dispute with Argentina. Carlos Raimundi an Argentine member of Congress from the opposition and who belongs to the Malvinas Parliamentary Observatory condemned Britain's latest announcement which he described as "imperialist" and called for a multilateral dialogue. "I think this attitude is completely oblivious to the current international and historic context. It's also against all ecological and geophysical matters. It should be discussed in the relevant international forums. Great Britain should not make nationalist and imperialist demands; instead there should be multi-lateral dialogues." "I totally condemn this action." The move signals Britain's willingness to join the current rush by countries to try to secure their potential oil, gas and mineral rights to sea-beds should circumstance change. The most notable recent examples were the claim by Russia over the Arctic seabed by planting an underwater titanium Russian flag in the bottom of the sea, and France that registered a claim to thousands of square kilometers around New Caledonia, in the Pacific.