MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina and US advancing in construction of an integrated naval base in Tierra del Fuego

US Southern Command chief Admiral Alvin Holsey when visiting Argentina and meeting President Javier Milei

The Argentine government shipyard Company Tandanor has finished the flat cement foundation on which the Joint Antarctic Command for the Ushuaia integrated naval base in Tierra del Fuego province is to be built, points out Buenos Aires media.

According to Argentine president Javier Milei statements back in April, and following visits from several top United States defense and naval officers, the project is part of a joint collaboration between Argentina and United States, which attempts to contain Chinese influence in the extreme South Atlantic and Antarctica.

The joint project allegedly also means the end of a similar operation, but financed by China, following on agreements with Beijing, to which former president Cristina Fernandez and her puppet successor Alberto Fernandez had secretly reached.

What has also surprised is the speed with which the foundations were built, given that in Tierra del Fuego province, during July, there is a ‘winter ban’ of all construction activities particularly when water and other liquid elements are involved in setting cement, given extreme cold temperatures.

Some nationalist groups are complaining that reaching an Antarctica agreement with the United States, details of which have not been made public, means Argentina is dropping its “Antarctica sovereignty ambition”. They are also accusing the US of intent in using the integrated naval base as a calling point for US nuclear submarines.

Allegedly the head of the US Southern Command Admiral Alvin Holsey visited the construction site and underlined how significant it was for the US to expand its geo-strategic influence in the Antarctic continent, ”disputing the presence of other powers, which have ambitions in the area”.