The Argentine Navy's icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízar set sail from Buenos Aires this week to do her part in the 2023/2024 Antarctic Summer Campaign after a ceremony presided over by Defense Minister Luis Petri.
In the absence of Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero who had to isolate himself after having been a close contact during last week's Celac Summit of his Bolivian colleague Rogelio Mayta, who tested positive for COVID-19, Malvinas, Antarctica, and South Atlantic Secretary Guillermo Carmona presided over Monday's ceremony where the 2021-2022 Antarctic Annual Plan was launched.
President Alberto Fernandez on Friday underlined the significance of Argentina's standing presence in Antarctica, --to defend its sovereignty claims--, and also recalled that 187 years ago the British invaded and usurped the Malvinas Islands, a land which “we will never renounce to, and we will always claim”.
Argentina's icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar has completed its round of supplying Antarctic bases, on time and according to planning, reports the Antarctic Joint Command. The bases involved are Esperanza, Marambio and Carlini.
With the departure of icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar, Argentina launched this week its Antarctica Summer Campaign 2018/19. The re furbished icebreaker is scheduled to develop an intense scientific activity, supply Argentina's bases and stations and replace the teams that will be spending a whole season in Antarctica.
Argentina has created the Antarctica Joint Command, which will operate under the orbit of the Ministry of Defense and be responsible for conducting operations in Antarctica, and areas of interest, in a continuous and permanent way.
Argentina's icebreaker Almirante Irizar is back in Buenos Aires at the end of its first Antarctic campaign in ten years, following the fire that almost knocked the Finnish built vessel out of action. She left on 26 December and completed 107 days in the high seas and Antarctica's ice.
A group of US scientists who were stranded in an ice-bound island off the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula were rescued on Sunday by an Argentine icebreaker, US and Argentine authorities announced Monday.
They formed the number 44 on the ice as they headed into the Antarctic while performing a traditional military salute next to their ship, the ARA Almirante Irizar. Forty-four submariners on the ARA San Juan were lost in the waters of the South Atlantic on 15 November.
Argentina's flagship of Antarctica operations is back after ten long years. The refurbished icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar, called at Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, on New Year before leaving for the 2017/18 summer campaign.