A British Antarctic ship that set sail from the Malvinas Islands and sailed through Argentine jurisdictional waters towards the Chilean port of Punta Arenas caused an alert in the naval authorities that activated the corresponding mechanisms for the application of Decree 256/2010 that establishes the need to have national authorization to cross the Argentine sea towards ports located in the disputed archipelago.
It is a flagship of the British Antarctic Survey under illegitimate registration in the Malvinas Islands, which has the function of being an icebreaker and floating laboratory and would have completed his second expedition to Antarctica, after leaving the United Kingdom on November 22, 2022.
The Foreign Ministry learned, through a report from the Argentine Naval Prefecture, of the landfall of the British Antarctic ship, SSR Sir David Attenborough, in the port of Punta Arenas (Chile), which occurred on January 21 of this year.sources from the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Secretariat told Télam.
Faced with the fact, as reported by the organization headed by Guillermo Carmona, The Foreign Ministry focused on verifying whether the Republic of Chile had complied with the commitment set forth in the “Declaration of the States Parties to Mercosur and Associated States on vessels flying the illegal flag of the Malvinas Islands”, adopted in Montevideo (Uruguay) on 20 in December 2011.
In this declaration, the Member States of Mercosur and Associated States “reiterated the commitment opportunely assumed to adopt, in accordance with International Law and their respective internal legislation, all measures that may be regulated to prevent the entry into their ports of ships flying the illegal flag of the Falkland Islands.
Alerted by the Argentine Prefecture about the incident, the Foreign Ministry immediately requested information on the matter from the Argentine Consulate in Punta Arenas, whose authorities “were able to verify that the ship was flying the British red flag and that, therefore, the aforementioned commitment had not been breached “.
On the other hand, On the return of the British ship to the Malvinas Islands, the Argentine National Prefecture activated the corresponding mechanisms for the application of Decree 256/2010signed by the then president Cristina Kirchner, which establishes the need to have national authorization to cross Argentine jurisdictional waters towards ports located in the Malvinas, South Georgia or South Sandwich Islands and/or load merchandise to be transported in directly or indirectly between those ports, you must request a prior authorization issued by the competent national authority.
The RRS Attenborough not only failed to comply with this necessary step, but it remains registered in Port Stanley under the illegitimate flag of the “Falkland Islands”, according to sources from the Secretariat of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic indicated to this agency.
In this regard, they recalled that the “illegitimate registration of the ship” has been rejected by the Argentine government on several occasions and recently, in a note dated March 8, 2022, the Foreign Ministry stated that “the fact that the logistics means of the BAS (British Antarctic Service) are registered in registries not recognized by the Argentine government is not in line with the spirit of cooperation of the Antarctic Treaty”, a situation that makes bilateral cooperation between the BAS and the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA) impossible.
Such cooperation had been agreed, within the framework of the Joint Communiqué of September 13, 2016 (known as Foradori-Duncan), through the Memorandum of Understanding between the Argentine Antarctic Institute and the British Antarctic Survey held on May 14, 2018 by the macro management.
In 2016, the then Vice Foreign Ministers of Argentina and the United Kingdom, Carlos Foradori and Alan Duncan, signed a joint communiqué in which they sought to revitalize the bilateral relationship, based on “removing all the obstacles that limit the economic growth and sustainable development of the Malvinas Islands”, among other points.
The arrival of the Frente de Todos to the Casa Rosada in 2019 changed that scenario, assuming the controversial Foradori-Duncan agreement as a concession to the British occupation of the Malvinas Islands.
To continue with the validity of the memorandum of understanding, Argentina demanded that the United Kingdom modify the registry of the entire fleet based in the Malvinas, a request that received no response and, therefore, in April 2022, the Casa Rosada terminated.
In relation to the navigation of the British vessel through the Strait of Magellan, from the Secretariat directed by Carmona they indicated that “it is appropriate to bear in mind what is indicated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), an instrument that our country has ratified in 1995, and which establishes the conditions for the right of innocent passage of ships through the territorial sea and navigation in the Exclusive Economic Zone.
Said Convention allows the free transit of a ship from any country through Argentine waters, as long as it is done as innocent passage, that is, under the conditions established in the Law of the Sea, an excepted situation for any vessel that comes from or goes to the Malvinas Islands.
Faced with the detected incident, “the Argentine state acted in accordance with current national legislation and the Law of the Sea,” the sources of the Secretariat pointed out.
Thus, through the coast guard system; and with the support of the Argentine Navy, the scientific vessel was traced and monitored and they were notified of irregularities.
The episode with the British ship was taken advantage of by the opposition, in the form of a draft request for reports on the “unrestricted movements” of the British ship RRS “Sir David Attenborough”, with the “illegal flag of the Falkand Islands”, between Puerto Argentino and Punta Arenas and “the implicit logistical support for said operation provided by the Government of the Republic of Chile” was presented today in the Chamber of Senators of the Nation.
The project bears the signature of the representatives of Tierra del Fuego, Pablo Blanco; and from Santa Cruz, María Belén Tapia, both from Together for Change.
“Now their clothes are torn. They do not remember that their government agreed to an Antarctic cooperation with the participation of the RRS Attenborough. We strictly apply Argentine legislation, we do not do what the Macri government did”expressed the sources of the secretariat headed by Carmona.
