Natasha Niebieskikwiat
01/15/2021 20:09
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 01/16/2021 2:32 AM
After several twists and turns, internal differences but also counterpoints with the United States government, the Foreign Ministry issued a press release this Friday in which it marked its limits to Operation Southern Cross that the USCGC Stone of the Coast Guard ship of the United States is doing it in the South Atlantic and it
will bring it off the Argentine coast.
The text of the Argentine note indicates that the ship
will enter the port of Mar del Plata in February for a "strictly protocol" visit.
The clarifications and discussions in recent days between the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Security, and those held with the United States Embassy in Buenos Aires highlight how sensitive cooperation in Defense and Security is in the Kirchner government coalition with Washington, taking into account that they were the
object of clashes between the administrations of Cristina Kirchner and Barak Obama.
Another is the relationship you seek to have
Alberto Fernández with Joseph Biden, who takes office on January 20.
In addition, sectors linked to Christianity always maintained in tune with Caracas that the United States intends to use its fleet of the Southern Command - which is managed by the Defense Department unlike the Stone which is of the Coast Guard - for
armed "interventions" in Venezuela.
The patrol that will mount the USCGC Stone is the first of its kind at a regional level, and according to official sites in the United States it targets illegal activities on the high seas.
Moreover, it has also been reported that one of its objectives is to deter
illegal fishing,
which mostly comes from
Chinese vessels,
at least in this area.
Clarín
learned from industry sources that the United States had proposed to jointly patrol illegal fishing with the Prefecture in the South Atlantic, but that the political order was only to accept the courtesy visit to Mar del Pata.
The Minister of Security, Sabina Frederic, sought to satisfy the desire of the Prefecture to carry out operations with the United States.
But this was aborted by the Chancellery.
In various sectors, they warned that the fisheries agreement that is being negotiated with Beijing must be "taken care of".
The statements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Department released today are not out of place but they are not the same.
The one from Argentina says that the United States Government reported the navigation of this latest generation ship between January and February, and that it requested that the USCGC Stone make a "visit" to a port, committing to observe the protocols on the coronavirus pandemic, which include the safety of the crew and personnel in the port.
“The Argentine government accepted the visit of the USCGC Stone together with its peer in our country, the Argentine Naval Prefecture, which will take place in the port of Mar del Plata in February.
This activity will be strictly formal in nature, "said the ministry led by Foreign Minister Felipe Solá.
They warned that the visit
"does not include any operational or cooperative activity
." Therefore -they warned- "it will not involve surveillance or fishing control missions, which are carried out exclusively with means and personnel of the Argentine State whose function is to protect of
our sovereignty
and our resources in the national maritime spaces that in the last year captured three illegal foreign fishing vessels, a figure that had not been reached since 2005. "
The State Department statement indicates that this operation is part of its “efforts to build regional maritime safety associations and
counter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the South Atlantic.
He reviewed some "joint patrols" - which the Argentine government does not want to do - in Guyana, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador de Bahia.
And he talks about his stop "further south", in Mar del Plata, "for a welcome ceremony by the sister service of the Coast Guard, the Argentine Naval Prefecture before the ship returns home."
The US statement said that it has an observer from the Portuguese Navy, and that as it passed through the Caribbean, it intercepted a high-speed ship carrying 900 kilos of cocaine in the south of the Dominican Republic.
“The United States is a world leader in efforts to address IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) fishing, including through work in multilateral institutions to strengthen the rules governing international fishing and bilateral engagement with states coastal, port and market markets of the world, ”the statement said without making allusions to other countries, as the United States Naval Institute did, which mentioned the illegal activities of Chinese vessels in the area, which are in the sights of U.S.
"The value of the world production of capture fish in 2018 was more than $ 151,000 million," said the US statement, which urged states to work together under agreements that govern in the orbit of the UN. And he recalled that illegal fishing causes the
loss of billions of dollars
, in addition to detonating world food security, and the economic security of the coastal states. And it violates state sovereignty by undermining international agreements and fisheries conservation measures.