President Sebastián Piñera together with Foreign Minister Andrés Allamand announced today that Chile will present to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLPC), a report that determines the Extended Continental Shelf that is projected from the western coast of the Chilean Antarctic Territory, in the area of the Bellingshausen Sea and the Shackleton Fracture.
The announcement could unleash a new controversy with Argentina, given the claims expressed by the trans-Andean government last August, after the update of Nautical Chart No. 8, which determines the outer limit of the continental shelf of 200 nautical miles from Punta Puga. to the Diego Ramírez islands. On that occasion, the trans-Andean Ministry of Foreign Relations stated that “the aforementioned Chilean claim is not acceptable to the Argentine Republic” and the Senate of that country issued a statement in the same vein.
However, in La Moneda, President Piñera upon receiving the conclusion of the report, which contains the results of 12 years of bathymetric investigations, scientific and technical studies, stressed that “today we are meeting a new milestone in the exercise of our sovereignty over the ‘Land of Tomorrow’, the Chilean Antarctic Territory ”.
“It is a very transcendent work that demonstrates Chile’s commitment to Antarctica and is proof of our active role in scientific research and conservation in that continent,” he added at the meeting where the report was announced, in which the ministers of Interior and Public Security, Rodrigo Delgado, and National Defense, Baldo Prokurica, in addition to the undersecretary of Defense, Cristián de la Maza; the Commander in Chief of the Navy, Juan Andrés de la Maza, and the Director of Borders and State Limits, Ximena Fuentes. Telematically, parliamentarians, scientists, researchers and representatives of the academic world attended.
“We are a tricontinental country”
The continental shelf is the submarine continuation of the submerged continent under the sea. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Convemar) recognizes all States that have a coastline of a continental shelf of 200 nautical miles. But in some cases, it can exceed this distance, reaching 350 nautical miles or more.
To prove the existence of the continental shelf beyond 200 miles, coastal countries must conduct technical and scientific studies that demonstrate that there is a geomorphological continuity of the continent under the sea. These must be submitted to the CLPC, the entity that must validate the above.
The report, which will be presented in the coming weeks and which was the result of measurement works started in 2009, determines the existence of an extended platform that covers a total of 210,000 km2.
“The continental maritime shelves are of enormous importance, particularly in the field of protecting biodiversity and in everything that has to do with scientific knowledge of the seabed. And truly, with this, Chile claims that we have a character and that we are a tricontinental country, “explained Foreign Minister Allamand, who stressed that” this is going to be one of the most important legacies of the Presidency of Sebastián Piñera.
“The importance of this report is fundamental, first, as a very important step in the exercise of Chile’s sovereign rights in Antarctica. But it is also a milestone for the study of the Antarctic continent, for the development of science, “said Ximena Fuentes, Director of State Borders and Limits.
