Two national senators, one from Tierra del Fuego and the other from Santa Cruz, presented this Monday to the national government a request for reports on the navigation
in Argentine waters of the United Kingdom icebreaker, RRS Sir David Attenborough.
They complained that the ship, which also functions as a floating laboratory, has sailed through national waters
with the "illegal flag" of the Malvinas
, that is, the Falkland Islands, heading to Punta Arenas, Chile to refuel there.
The request for information was presented by the Fuegian senator of Together for Change Pablo Daniel Blanco, who also complained that "being such a defender of Argentine sovereignty over the islands, the Government has not said a peep" about this ship, quite daring to
transit Argentine waters with the island flag considering that Argentina does not allow it.
Blanco's request for information was accompanied by Senator María Belén Tapia from Santa Cruz and,
in addition to sending it to Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, was addressed to Defense Minister Jorge Taiana.
The claim mentions the fact that on January 21, the RRS Sir David Attenborough crossed "sovereign Argentine waters" on its way to Punta Arenas to refuel.
She came from the Malvinas Islands, and she returned there on Wednesday, February 8.
The Attenborough is a logistics support vessel, the first of its kind
officially registered in Stanley-Puerto Argentino for the continent
.
She was
completed in 2021 for use in British Antarctic Survey (BAS) campaigns.
Therefore, the ship flies the flag of the islands which is a different Union Jack.
For starters, on one side she has a shield with a sheep.
She is not recognized by Argentina.
"The decision of the British government to have registered the icebreaker in the Malvinas
is not an innocent act
. The decision was adopted while the ship was in the shipyard in the city of Liverpool," says the request for reports to the Foreign Ministry and Defense of Blanco y Tapia, and that it relates said decision to British interests in a key area: the islands of the South Atlantic that it maintains in dispute with Argentina and Antarctica, where there are also overlapping claims.
The Attenborough
is one of the most advanced polar research ships in the world.
She surveys and delivers supplies to the islands and British Antarctic stations.
In their request for a report on Blanco and Tapia, they asked to know:
- If both Ministries were aware of the movements of the aforementioned vessel and if measures were adopted for its monitoring and escort in transit through waters under Argentine jurisdiction.
- If formal communications of complaint were made to the Government of the Republic of Chile by virtue of the logistical support provided with the entry to the port of Punta Arenas.
"From a broader point of view, Chile's support in Punta Arenas for a ship flying an illegal flag implies a breach of the obligations of the Port State, which must ensure the legitimacy of the ships it hosts," they say in the arguments.
- If the Ministry of Defense plans to adopt monitoring, escort and follow-up actions of the ship in question for its return trip to the Malvinas through our territorial sea.
- Whether diplomatic actions have been taken before the International Maritime Organization regarding the use of the illegal Falkland flag within the UK Shipping Register.
Clarín
consulted the Foreign Ministry about the passage of this ship, but above all about the kelper flag, which in the past was even the axis of a Mercosur resolution, now obsolete.
In the wave of her usual tensions with London and the islanders, former president Cristina Kirchner pushed through a regional bloc resolution banning the mooring of the kelper flag in the region's ports.
This was always half fulfilled.
The issue of supplying British ships and planes is a more delicate issue that Kirchnerism watches over because it maintains a heavy-handed policy towards the islands.
For that matter, in recent leaked chats in Chile that involved Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola, an official who criticizes former Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa is heard speaking with the group.
And at one point he talks about a supposed favor that was done to him by "a British ship."
It was learned days later that it is the HMS that was the subject of negotiation between the governments of Alberto Fernández and Gabriel Boric.
At the time, the Boric Foreign Ministry agreed not to allow HSM Forth to participate in Exponaval 2022 at a request from Argentina.
But the provisioning of the Altenborough shows that the relations of the region and London are many and difficult to control under the wing of the conflict of sovereignty.
Over these years, dozens of United Kingdom military planes and ships came and went in neighboring ports and airports despite Argentine claims that this was not the case.
At the time, the government of Sebastián Piñera spoke of "free navigation."
But whether the ship with the unrecognized flag circulates through national waters is another matter.
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