MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean Senator outraged at Argentine ministers' Antarctica trip

“Good relations are built with facts, not with provocations,” Moreira stressed

A Chilean opposition Senator has voiced his concern over the recent presence of Argentine Ministers Jorge Taiana, Daniel Filmus, and Carla Vizotti in Antarctica, as both countries' claims over the territory overlap

Taiana referring to Argentina as “a bi-continental country” sparked controversy in Santiago.

“The Antarctic Treaty expressly freezes the sovereign territorial aspirations of all countries, and the words of the Minister of Defense sow mistrust, doubts, and rejection in our country, in what can only be described as a provocative and unnecessarily irresponsible attitude,” Senator Iván Moreira of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party told Buenos Aires' daily La Nación.

Moreira, who is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and stans opposite President Gabriel Boric Font in Chilean politics, said he would ask the Foreign Ministry to “raise a formal note of protest against this action of the Argentine government, which increases the differences we have.”

According to La Nación, tension has mounted after the strengthening of surveillance controls in the South Atlantic by the Argentine government, through the creation of the Joint Maritime Command in addition to the development of a radarization plan.

In late July, Argentina's Joint Aerospace Surveillance Command allegedly detected through Cabo Domingo's radar in the province of Tierra del Fuego five irregular flights heading for the Falkland Islands which had departed from Chilean territory.

Joining Taiana's Antarctica trip was General Juan Martín Paleo, the Joint Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. “The visit of the Minister of Defense and the military chief, with the explicit intention of emphasizing the alleged Argentine sovereignty in the Antarctic territory, is a worrying sign. Especially when the formal motive was a scientific meeting that, in the end, remained in the background,” Moreira added.

“Good relations are built with facts, not with provocations. Let's be prudent in what is said, given that these issues are sensitive for both countries,” he insisted in his statements to La Nación.

Argentina and Chile are two of the seven countries that claim territories in Antarctica, together with the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and France.