Chilean defense officials convened a meeting in Antarctica on Thursday to bolster their territorial claims there amid rising tensions over Russian polar exercises.
Members of Chile’s parliamentary defense committee flew to the desolate airbase for a meeting they called an assertion of national sovereignty.
An unusually cold autumn has hit parts of South America, with Chile experiencing its coldest May in 74 years.
“We intend to remain in Antarctica as a sovereign act to defend and support national unity against any threats,” committee member Camila Flores said, specifically naming Russia as one such threat.
A Gentoo penguin stands on a rock near the Chilean base Bernardo O’Higgins, Antarctica, January 22, 2015. Members of the Chilean Defense Committee held a special meeting in Antarctica on Thursday, May 23, 2024, to discuss the “current geopolitical situation.” (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
The lawmakers revealed little about their talks at the glacier-covered base, other than to say they discussed the “current geopolitical situation” in the white continent, which is rich in minerals and freshwater and has no government.
The meeting came amid a media frenzy over reports that Russia had discovered large oil reserves in Antarctica, when the Russian polar research vessel Alexander Karpinsky reportedly found around 500 billion barrels worth of crude oil in 2020. The issue resurfaced in the UK parliament earlier this month, with experts warning that Russian geological surveys could jeopardise a decades-old ban on drilling in the region.
The report has upset Chile and Argentina, two of the seven countries with claims to the demilitarized part of the continent. According to documents submitted to the British Parliament, the Russian survey was carried out in the Weddell Sea, an area where Chilean claims overlap with those of the UK and Argentina.
“We will continue to defend what we believe to be fair,” said Francisco Undurraga, president of Chile’s Defense Committee, blaming the “insidious ambitions” of countries rushing to expand their influence in Antarctica in an increasingly energy-hungry world.
After reports of Russian resource extraction projects emerged earlier this month, Argentina demanded clarification on whether Russia’s intentions were scientific or economic, and Chilean President Gabriel Boric pledged to “firmly oppose any commercial extraction of minerals or hydrocarbons.”
Historic tensions over Antarctic sovereignty have also resurfaced between Mr Boric’s left-wing government and Argentina’s far-right government.
Argentine President Javier Milley last month announced plans to build a naval base in the south, with U.S. involvement, to help Argentina assert its claim to Antarctica as part of an effort to realign its foreign policy to align with the United States, drawing complaints from the Chilean Foreign Ministry.
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The geopolitical competition is just the latest issue testing the 53-nation Antarctic Treaty, which in 1959 established the Antarctic region as a scientific reserve for peaceful purposes only.
Rising sea levels due to climate change, unregulated tourism and krill fishing in the Antarctic are just some of the challenges the consensus-based system is struggling to address.
