a british ship which sailed from the Falkland Islands sailed through Argentine jurisdictional waters on its way to the port of Punta Arenas, in Chile. This route of the Antarctic vessel alerted the naval authorities, who 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.
The ship belongs to the British Antarctic Survey under illegitimate registration in the Malvinas and has the function of being an icebreaker and floating laboratory. She would have completed her second expedition to Antarctica following leaving the United Kingdom on November 22, 2022.
The Argentine Naval Prefecture submitted a report to the Foreign Ministry informing regarding the landfall of the British Antarctic ship, SSR Sir David Attenborough, in Punta Arenas, which occurred on January 21 of this year.
Faced with the fact, the Foreign Ministry was in charge of verifying whether or not Chile had complied with the commitment provided in the “Declaration of the States Parties to Mercosur and Associated States on ships that fly the illegal flag of the Malvinas Islands”, which was adopted in Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 20, 2011.
In that treaty, the States that make up Mercosur and the 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 vessels flying the illegal flag of the Malvinas Islands”.
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Finally, the authorities of the Argentine consulate in Punta Arenas verified that “the ship was flying the British red flag and that, therefore, the aforementioned commitment had not been broken.”
The return to the Malvinas
On its return, the PNA activated the corresponding mechanisms to apply Decree 256/2010, which establishes the need to have a national permit to cross Argentine jurisdictional waters towards ports located in the Malvinas, South Georgia or South Sandwich Islands and/or or load merchandise to be transported directly or indirectly between those ports. In these cases, a prior authorization issued by the competent national authority must be requested.
SSR Sir David Attenborough failed to take that necessary stepbut also remains registered in Port Stanley under the illegitimate flag of the “Falkland Islands”, as indicated to the news agency telam sources from the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Secretariat.
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It should be remembered that the “illegitimate registration of the ship” was repeatedly rejected by the Argentine Government and in a March 2022 note, the Foreign Ministry indicated that “the fact that the logistics means of the BAS (British Antarctic Service) are registered in records not recognized by the Argentine government is not in line with the spirit of cooperation of the Antarctic Treaty”. This situation makes bilateral cooperation between the BAS and the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA) impossible.
Said joint work 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, during the government of Mauricio Macri.
JP/fl
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