Chilean–Peruvian maritime dispute

Chile - Peru relations

Chile	Peru

The Chilean–Peruvian maritime dispute is a dispute between the Republic of Peru and the Republic of Chile on the sovereignty of an area at sea of approximately 37,900 square kilometres (14,600 sq mi) in the Pacific Ocean, from the Peruvian version that boundary delimitation between the two countries is still not fixed. For its part, the Chilean version is that there is no outstanding border issues with Peru, as there are international treaties from 1952 and 1954 in force on the subject.

The dispute concerns an area in the sea between the parallel that crosses the end point of the land border between Chile and Peru (as Chile, "Hito # 1" and according to Peru "Punto Concordia") and the bisecting line perpendicular to the coast in Chile and Peru, formed by the overlapping of the baselines of both countries to form a trapezoid of 67,139.4 square kilometres (25,922.7 sq mi), of which about 38,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi) are considered sovereign by Chile and for which Peru requested an equitable division; secondarily includes the status of a marine triangle to the left trapezius aforementioned 28,471.86 square kilometres (10,993.05 sq mi), which Chile considers the high seas and Peru as part of its maritime domain for the projection of its baselines.

Maritime claims of Ecuador and Peru, showing areas in dispute with Chile

The background of this dispute goes back to the mid-1980s. In 1985, the then Foreign Minister of Peru, Allan Wagner first addressed this issue formally with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile at the time, Jaime del Valle. The following year, the Peruvian Ambassador Juan Miguel Bakula Patino had an interview with Foreign Minister Jaime del Valle on this matter, and handled a diplomatic note, dated May 23 of 1986. By the aforementioned note, issued by the Embassy of Peru in Santiago de Chile, Peru stated its position regarding the necessity of "concluding a treaty on maritime boundaries", on the premise that it must reach a formal and definitive delimitation of maritime spaces, which complement the geographical proximity between Peru and Chile.

Chile ratified the Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1997 and, according to its text, in September 2000, deposited it with the United Nations. Its nautical charts indicated the parallel 18º21'00" South as the maritime boundary between the two countries. Later, Peru formalized its position on the issue, through a note sent to the United Nations on January 7, 2001, which does not recognize the line of latitude as the maritime boundary between the two countries.

Public discussion on this subject was revived in 2005, when the Congress of Peru began to process a bill on determining the baseline of maritime domain, which are sequences of points that determine where it finishes the coastal edge and therefore begins the territorial sea as such, setting the width of the maritime domain of Peru to the distance of 200 nautical miles, using a line bisector in the south, bordering with Chile. The Peruvian law was passed and promulgated on November 3, 2005.

Ambassador Albert van Klaveren		Ambassador Allan Wagner

On January 16, 2008, the government of Peru introduced in the International Court of Justice the "Case Concerning Maritime Delimitation between the Republic of Peru and the Republic of Chile", also called Peru v. Chile. The case is meant to adjudicate the re-delimitation of the maritime border between these two countries.

In the case, Peru argues that the maritime boundary should run on a southwestern direction from their land border. Chile claims that in bilateral treaties signed in 1952 and 1954, Peru recognized that the boundary runs in a western direction.^[1] The Chilean agent to the Court is former Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Albert Van Klaveren. The Peruvian agent is the current Ambassador to The Netherlands, Allan Wagner.

See also

• Arica y Parinacota controversy
• Atacama border dispute
• List of Chilean-Peruvian controversies
• Foreign policy of Ollanta Humala

References

1. ^ BBC News, Chile-Peru spat over sea border. Retrieved on January 27, 2007.

External links

• Peru v. Chile Maritime Dispute on the docket of International Court of Justice and Peru Takes Chile to UN World Court of 16 January 2008 and BBC and Peru ICJ Team and Chile ICJ Team and GAR Listing Both ICJ Teams of 16 January 2008