Chile’s president Gabriel Boric has made a historic journey to the south pole to reaffirm his nation’s “declare to sovereignty” over its a part of Antarctica, his workplace mentioned.
Boric is the primary Latin American chief to achieve the Earth’s southernmost level, in line with his workplace.
“This can be a milestone for us,” Boric mentioned, in footage broadcast by Chilean tv.
“It’s the first time a Chilean president has come to the south pole and talked about Chile’s Antarctic mission.”
Boric, accompanied by his defence and setting ministers, in addition to three army commanders, arrived at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, a US analysis base, at 8pm GMT, his workplace mentioned.
The Chilean chief deliberate to spend about two hours on the US outpost, in one of many planet’s most distant and hostile zones.
The journey “is a affirmation of our declare to sovereignty” over a part of Antarctica, he mentioned.
Through the twentieth century, international locations similar to Chile, France, america, Britain, Argentina and Japan arrange analysis stations in Antarctica, for scientific analysis and to determine a presence within the forbidding area.
Since 1961, actions within the area have been ruled by the Antarctic Treaty, which seeks to defend the continent and its surrounding seas from geopolitical rivalries.
The US state division says seven international locations together with Chile preserve territorial claims in Antarctica, however “america and most different international locations don’t recognise these claims.”
Boric started his voyage early within the day from Punta Arenas, in southern Chile, reaching Chile’s analysis station on the Union Glacier in Antarctica, aboard a Hercules C-130 army transport airplane.
Boric’s go to comes “at an necessary second for Chile’s scientific endeavours within the area,” his workplace mentioned.
Previously, Chile has concentrated its analysis within the northern a part of Antarctica, however the South American nation is hoping to broaden its efforts to the Bellingshausen and Weddell Seas, in line with the assertion from the presidency.
In 2007, then New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark made the journey to the south pole, adopted in 2011 by former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg.
Stoltenberg was commemorating the a hundredth anniversary of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen’s voyage in December 1911.
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