MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Latin American focus, support for Argentina's Falklands' claim and diplomacy to solve continental shelf disputes, Boric's agenda

President Gabriel Boric with his neighbor friend, Alberto Fernandez (L) during his recent visit to Argentina

Chilean president Gabriel Boric in his recent visit to Argentina stated some of the basic pillars of the new administration's foreign policy, focused mainly on Latin America, human rights, support for Argentina's claim over the Falklands, and willingness to address border disputes its neighbor through diplomacy and patience.

To start with Boric told his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernandez that his government supports the “fair, legitimate and dignified claim of the Argentine people and Argentine State over Falkland/Malvinas Islands sovereignty”.

Boric recalled that the long established tradition is that the first place incoming Chilean presidents visit is Argentina and in his case it was quite personal. “I feel a great proximity with Argentina, like brothers, I grew up in Patagonia, and in Patagonia there are no borders, We must replicate that cooperation spirit”.

In a surprise statement, Boric also talked about international human rights polices and criticized the double standard prevailing in “left wing sectors”, which equates the “double standard in human rights issues, promoted by the right wing when it comes to the triad of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua”.

“Why don't you ask me about human rights in Chile or about the killings of social leaders in Colombia?”. The Chilean president added “human rights must be respected in an integral way and the State has to promote them in an integral universal form all over the world. Let us not take advantage of the sufferings of people for the benefit of domestic policies”.

On thorny bilateral issues such as the limits' dispute both neighboring countries have in the extreme south off shore the continent, Boric pledged that they “will be solved through diplomacy”.

“The limits policy of the Chilean State is a State policy. We might have differences; as to the Antarctic continental shelf we are going to solve it through good offices and diplomacy. This will not impede us to deepen our cultural relations, in energy matters, in economic and political matters”, underlined president Boric.

The Chilean president also suggested the idea of diplomacy to other differences, including the shelf dispute south of Tierra del Fuego, where aspirations overlap and there are spaces claimed by both countries.

As to immediate bilateral challenges Boric mentioned climate change and migration crisis, “they are problems that ignore the boundaries of the State-Nation, and much work must be done jointly in the region”. Chile has experienced a constant influx of Venezuelan and Caribbean migrants through its northern border.

Finally, “Chile is part of Latin America, for too long we were looking in other directions, to the north and to the Pacific, with relations we want to retain and expand but our base in the American continent, and from here we are going to build the Latin American community, region, with cooperation and internationalism”.