In message to Russia, Chilean lawmakers meet in Antarctica to highlight territorial claims

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chilean defense officials convened a meeting at the bottom of the planet Thursday in a bid to strengthen their territorial claims in Antarctica as tensions rise over Russia’s maneuvers in the region polar.

Lawmakers from Chile’s parliamentary defense committee traveled to a desolate air base for a meeting billed as an assertion of national sovereignty.

“We are going to sit in Antarctica in an act of sovereignty, of safeguarding and supporting our national integrity in the face of any threat,” committee member Camila Flores said, singling out Russia as posing such a threat.

Lawmakers did not reveal much about their discussions on the glacier-filled base, saying only that they addressed “the prevailing geopolitical conditions” on the white continent which has vast mineral resources, reserves of fresh water and no government.

The meeting comes amid a recent frenzy of media reporting around Russia’s purported discovery of huge oil reserves in Antarctica in 2020, when the Russian polar research vessel Alexander Karpinsky reportedly discovered some 500 billion barrels of oil raw. The issue resurfaced earlier this month during a British parliamentary session in which experts warned that Russian geological surveys could jeopardize the region’s decades-long ban on mining.

The reports have shaken Chile and Argentina, among seven countries that claim sovereignty over parts of the demilitarized continent. The Russian surveys took place in the Weddell Sea, where Chile’s territorial claims overlap those of Britain and Argentina, according to documents presented to the British parliament.

“We will continue to defend what we believe is right,” said Francisco Undurraga, head of Chile’s defense committee, condemning the “artful aspirations” of nations rushing to assert greater influence over Antarctica in a global more and more hungry for energy.

When reports of Russian resource extraction plans surfaced earlier this month, Argentina questioned whether Russia had scientific or economic intentions. Chilean President Gabriel Boric has promised to “firmly oppose any commercial exploitation of minerals and hydrocarbons”.

Historic tensions over claims to Antarctica have also resurfaced between Boric’s left-wing government and Argentina’s far-right government.

In an effort to reshape Argentina’s foreign policy in line with that of the United States, Argentine President Javier Milei announced last month the construction of a naval base in the south with U.S. participation to help l Argentina to claim Antarctica, sparking complaints from the Chilean Foreign Ministry.

Geopolitical competition is just the latest issue to test the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959 by 53 countries, which enshrined the territory as a scientific reserve used only for peaceful purposes.

Sea level rise due to climate change, unregulated tourism and krill fishing in the Southern Ocean are just a few other challenges that the consensus-based system is struggling to address.