ARGENTINA-CHILE: Last Border Treaty Opens New Era of Integration

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente and Gustavo Gonzalez

BUENOS AIRES/SANTIAGO, Jun 3 1999 (IPS) - A new era in the relations between Argentina and Chile was launched Thursday after the parliamentary ratification of a treaty putting an end to the last border dispute between the two countries, which found themselves on the verge of war in 1978.

The two Southern Cone countries, separated by one of the world’s longest – 5,000 kilometres – shared frontiers, finally left behind over a century of border disputes with the approval of a treaty on what is known as the Hielos Continentales in Argentina and the Campo de Hielo Sur in Chile.

The border has ceased to act as a separating wall, and has become a unifying bridge, said Argentinean Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella.

Chilean Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Insulza said the ratification of the treaty signed in December 1998 by presidents Carlos Menem of Argentina and Eduardo Frei of Chile closed a cycle of relations between the two countries, which had now set out, once and for all, upon a clear route towards integration.

The “campo de hielo” or icefields are an immense area of glaciers – the largest fresh water reserve in South America – located at the extreme southern tip of the two countries.

Insulza described the treaty, which entails the immediate demarcation of 100 kilometres of border in the icefields and the delineation over the next few years of the remaining 50 kilometres by a binational commission, as the “best possible solution.”

The treaty was approved by a vote of 58 to 32 in Chile’s Chamber of Deputies late Wednesday, and by 42 to five in Argentina’s Senate in the small hours of Thursday morning. It had previously made it through the Chilean Senate and Argentina’s lower house of parliament.

The agreement that put an end to the last of 24 border disputes replaced an earlier accord that had failed to obtain parliamentary backing.

The previous Friendship Treaty had worked out 22 of the 24 disputes, but had left pending the quarrel over the Laguna del Desierto, submitted to regional arbitration which ruled in favour of Argentina in 1993, and the now-resolved dispute over the icefields.

Relations between Buenos Aires and Santiago have long been marked by a distrustful competitive spirit, which was aggravated in the 1970s after the coups headed by generals Jorge Videla in Argentina and Augusto Pinochet in Chile, which led to years of dictatorship in the two countries (1976-83 in Argentina and 1973- 90 in Chile).

In 1978, the countries found themselves on the brink of war over the Picton, Lenox and Nueva islands, located in the Beagle Channel at the extreme southern tip of the American continent, after arbitration by Great Britain ruled in favour of Chile.

At the last minute, mediation by a representative of the Vatican, Cardinal Antonio Samore, headed off a conflict.

The de facto rulers of the two countries set out on an arms race, however, which continued after the restoration of democracy.

But relations between Buenos Aires and Santiago began to experience a shift in the early 1990s, fuelled by economic interests.

Chile became one of the largest foreign investors in Argentina, second only to the United States, channeling capital into strategic areas like energy, as well as the production and distribution of gas and electricity, food and beverages, supermarkets, paper, wood, textiles, mining and construction.

The increasingly warm relations between the two countries contributed to the signing of an agreement granting Chile associate status in South America’s largest trade bloc, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

While Chile has continued to resist becoming a full member of Mercosur due to differences over tariffs, that eventuality is beginning to look less and less remote.

Chilean Foreign Minister Insulza said that now that the territorial disputes had been laid to rest, Chile would be able to focus in the next century on integration with Argentina, based on aspects linked to “daily life.”

He mentioned plans for integration in the energy sector, with gas and oil pipelines connecting the two countries. And he also cited Chile’s possible admission into Mercosur as a full member.

The hurdles standing in the way of greater integration between Chile and its neighbours have shrunk in the wake of the global financial crisis, which dealt a severe blow to the flow of Chilean exports to Asia.

While commercial ties between Argentina and Chile have expanded and investment has ballooned to more than 1.5 billion dollars, the armed forces of the two countries have gradually left aside past rivalries and feelings of mistrust.

For the first time ever, the two armies have carried out joint maneuvres in recent years, based on a hypothetical conflict scenario involving a common external enemy. And this week, the governments of the two countries accepted a proposal by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to limit military spending.

Now that the icefields treaty has been ratified, negotiators from the Chilean and Argentinian foreign ministries will finish drafting a new agreement on the free transit of people across the border between the two countries.

Before the turn-of-the-century, Argentinians and Chileans will be moving freely between the two countries, passing through a single customs post.