MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China insists in taking over Rio Grande port in Patagonia as established in a MoU with Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego governor Gustavo Melella revived an old controversy concerning a deal with a Chinese company to build a multipurpose port in Rio Grande

One of Buenos Aires' main dailies, La Nacion, is reporting that China will not back down from its port plan in Patagonia, as promised by the regional and national governments. In early June, Argentine Governor of Tierra del Fuego Gustavo Melella revived an old controversy concerning a deal with a Chinese company to build a multipurpose port in Rio Grande

The controversy was reignited when Melella presented the memorandum of understanding he had signed with Shaanxi Chemical Industry Group to the local legislature.

The agreement includes the construction of a port terminal with mooring capacity for vessels of up to 20,000 tons, as well as a power plant and an industrial plant to produce 900,000 tons of urea, 600,000 tons of synthetic ammonia, and 100,000 tons of glyphosate per year, for an estimated total investment of US$ 1.2 billion, Bloomberg estimated at the time.

But according to Argentine news site Deproa Noticias, at the time that Melella signed the agreement with the Chinese state-owned company, an Argentine company Mirgor already had plans to build a port in the same city.

Beijing, Deproa Noticias reported, has assured that it will not back down and will exert pressure so that the agreement is approved in the local legislature as presented, including the port.

The Chinese port in Rio Grande would control the passage between oceans through the Strait of Magellan, have direct access to Antarctica, and monitor movements in the Falkland Islands, including the British Mount Pleasant Complex, added the report.

“In terms of Antarctic presence and research, we know that China applies dual use for scientific capability,” Argentine geopolitical analyst Juan Belikow was quoted. “If Chinese scientific ships with powerful radars that allow them to control satellites start mooring in this port, the security implication of that is more than obvious.”

Another major concern about the construction of this port is that it could become similar to the research base Beijing already has in Neuquén, with restricted access to non personnel from the base, including Argentine nationals, Argentina’s Revista Puerto reported.

It could also provision the Chinese fleet that fishes in mile 201 of the South Atlantic, further accentuating the commercial disadvantages of that sector as compared to the illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing that supplies the same markets, Revista Puerto added.

“The port [in Rio Grande] is of a strategic nature so it can only be operated by companies with national capital, public, private or mixed, but national,” Tierra del Fuego Congressman Federico Frigerio said via X, previously known as Twitter. “We are not going to allow any foreign state to control our strategic infrastructure.”

“China currently has full or partial control over 40 of the 120 most important ports in Latin America, which is equivalent to approximately one-third of regional trade,” Belikow said. “This presence gives Beijing the ability to prioritize its own interests in times of crisis, creating an environment with ‘weird dynamics.’”