MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's defence minister backs trade between Punta Arenas and the Falklands

Asked how closer trade ties would fit with regional commitments, Barros said the “potentially most contentious” point is oil and mining exploration

Chile's Defence Minister Fernando Barros Tocornal has backed the development of commercial activity between the Magallanes region and the Falklands, saying his country's support for Argentina's sovereignty claim does not imply restrictions on trade with the archipelago. He made the remarks in an interview with Radio Polar in Punta Arenas during a visit to the region on September 24 and 25.

According to his comments, reported on Sunday by the Argentine daily La Nación, the Magallanes community has “the right to trade” and the minister sees “no impediments to those activities going ahead” within the legal framework.

Barros reiterated Chile's support for Buenos Aires, though with a nuance. “Chile has expressed its support for the Argentine claim, its sovereignty claim over the Malvinas or Falklands, but there is a fact: a friendly country has exercised sovereignty over the islands for 200 years,” he said, referring to the United Kingdom, which has administered the archipelago since 1833, with the 1982 interruption. He added that such support must be expressed in line with international law, “respecting the will and interest of the people involved and by peaceful means”. Argentina's position holds that the will of the archipelago's residents is not decisive in resolving the dispute. La Nación described the remarks as “at the very least confusing”.

The minister's words do not formally alter Chile's diplomatic position. On September 3, Presidents José Antonio Kast and Javier Milei signed a joint declaration in Santiago in which Chile reiterated its support for the sovereign rights Argentina claims over the islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and their corresponding maritime areas.

Asked how closer trade ties would fit with regional commitments, Barros said the “potentially most contentious” point is oil and mining exploration, “which will have to be assessed in due course”, and noted that Chile's commitments in Mercosur and Unasur are “political and not legally binding”. In 2011, Mercosur members and associate states, including Chile, agreed measures concerning vessels flying the archipelago's flag.

The remarks come as a project for a sea link between Punta Arenas and Stanley advances. The Falkland Islands Development Corporation, the archipelago's economic development agency, has signed a contract with Easter Island Naviera, a Chilean company operating mainly between Valparaíso and Easter Island. According to Chilean media, the first voyage is planned for November. Some Argentine outlets present the route as an alternative to the supplies that currently reach the islands from Montevideo, some 2,000 kilometres away.

Argentina has 60 administrative proceedings open, with no penalty applied, and three criminal complaints covering ten companies and their directors over hydrocarbon exploration in waters near the archipelago. None of the allegations has been proven. In the 2013 referendum, 99.8% of voters chose, on a 92% turnout, to retain the status of a British overseas territory.