MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Three expeditions to assert Chile's Antarctic commitment

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be visiting the Antarctic invited by Pte. Bachelet

Three Chilean expeditions with strong political emphasis are ready to land in Antarctica before the end of the year with the purpose of asserting Chilean sovereignty following on the Foreign Office's off-Antarctica territory claim.

The first delegation made up of the Chilean Congress Lower House Defence Committee members leaves Wednesday for Punta Arenas and should be landing in Antarctica Thursday where it will be staying two days. The committee is made up of six members, Jorge Tarud (PPD), Patricio Hales (PPD), Eduardo Díaz (DC), Jorge Ulloa (UDI), Ignacio Urrutia (UDI), Iván Norambuena (UDI) and Alfonso Vargas (RN). "It's a political gesture" that even when programmed before the British announcement "it becomes far stronger and has a clear political message", said Jorge Tarud committee president. As to the purposes of the visit, first of all "assert sovereignty, show clearly to the world that we Chileans don't need passports to travel to Antarctica, not even an ID, because it's our territory". "We also want to support our people in the Antarctic base President Frei", he added. Another distinguished visitor sometime next month will be United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who was specially invited for the trip by Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, during their last meeting in New York in September. The trip will take place taking advantage of the UN Secretary General presence at the coming Ibero-American summit in Santiago early November. However the visit will be in the framework of the coming world forums on the climate effects of global warming and show Ban Ki-moon in situ some of those consequences. But Deputy Tarud argues the event has a double significance because "it's the Chileans who are flying the Secretary General to Antarctica". Last but not least, Chile's Foreign Affairs ministry announced the country will sponsor a high level scientific expedition to Antarctica which will include mainly members from the UN Climate Change Intergovernmental Panel who were recently awarded the Peace Nobel Prize. This has the purpose of underlining the world that Chile is committed to the principles of the Antarctic Treaty. "We're going to do it in such a way that we're showing the world not only our commitment with Antarctica but also as a country involved in learning, research, science", insisted Foxley. A couple of weeks ago the Foreign Office announced it was looking into claiming rights over the ocean floor on the adjacent continental shelf up to 350 miles from shore, off Antarctica and South Atlantic islands as contemplated in the framework of the Law of the Sea Convention.