Argentina plans to establish an Antarctic Logistics Pole to strengthen its sovereignty and defense

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Although the initiative has been dormant for several periods, Argentina plans to create an Antarctic Logistics Pole. The space is intended to supply commercial and state-owned ships and aircraft operating in the area of Ushuaia, in the Province of Tierra del Fuego, which will contribute to strengthening aspects such as Defense and sovereignty in those southern territories that are the “gateway to Antarctica”.

According to a report by the public agency Télam, the initiative has been considered in different forms for decades. In the last few months, it has once again generated enthusiasm among the provincial authorities as a result of the impulse of the Argentine national government, which included a disbursement of approximately 14 billion Argentine pesos to finance it in its 2022 budget bill.

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Despite the opposition’s rejection of the Budget, the intention to allocate funds reflects that the Antarctic Logistics Pole is included in the action plans of the Ministry of Defense and the Malvina’s Secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where a series of decisions related to the project have already been implemented, such as the construction of a new hangar in the state shipyard Tandanor to be located in Ushuaia and the opening in that city of a sub-headquarter of the Secretariat.

INITIATIVE

The project consists of creating a large supply station in the capital city of Tierra del Fuego, which, based on its comparative advantages, will offer services to the fleets of ships and private or governmental airplanes that perform regular functions in Antarctica.

To this end, the construction of port and logistics infrastructure is planned on the Ushuaia peninsula, in an area reserved for the Argentine Navy, where the city’s Naval Air Base currently operates and where the old airport’s runway is still in operation.

The idea is to transform the place into a “multimodal logistic enclave, which will be the main area of exchange and supply, both of people and goods, with the Antarctic continent”, mentions among its objectives one of the proposals elaborated by the province in 2011, with funds from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The same document proposes consolidating Tierra del Fuego as an “operational, logistic, academic, scientific and educational platform for the national and international Antarctic community”. It assures that this “will promote provincial interests, facilitate national objectives and actively contribute to the Antarctic Treaty System”.

On the other hand, due to its content and the place where it will be located -a Navy property-, the portfolio headed by Jorge Taiana considers it a key project in terms of Defense, which will serve to protect interests related to sovereignty in an area of enormous geopolitical value such as the South Atlantic and Antarctica.

The Secretary of Malvinas of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, maintains that the idea of setting up an Antarctic Logistic Pole in Ushuaia will involve all the jurisdictions and areas of the national State and that it should also involve the University of Tierra del Fuego and the Conicet to make the different searches compatible, with a collaborative objective consisting of “Tierra del Fuego becoming the gateway to Antarctica”.

On behalf of the province, the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and International Affairs of Tierra del Fuego, Andrés Dachary, affirmed to Télam that the views of the different areas of the national State such as Defense, the Secretariat of Malvinas of the Foreign Ministry, or the Ministry of Science and Technology in this aspect are “complementary” with respect to the priorities of the Fuegian administration.

“From the Defense logic, the Navy has a more ambitious project that includes the complete relocation of the Southern Naval Area and the transfer to Ushuaia of the Joint Antarctic Command (Cocantar). For us, these are two complementary projects”, said Dachary in an interview with the agency Télam.

The administration of the Antarctic Logistics Pole in Ushuaia “should be articulated between the National and Provincial Governments, but with a strong participation of the private sector”, said the official from Tierra del Fuego.

For the Secretary of Industry and Economic Promotion of Tierra del Fuego, Juan Ignacio García, the objective of the Antarctic Logistics Pole should be “to create a space that provides the greatest number of services from a commercial perspective. From metal-mechanical services to repairs, storage, food and fuel supply, and even accommodation of crews,” he explained in a conversation with Télam.

According to García, this type of specialized services should be “linked” with local private production in Ushuaia, and in this sense, he reaffirmed: “For us, there is no doubt that the project’s imprint should be more private than state-owned”.

The 2011 project, which now regained strength with the impulse of the Nation, aims at the capital of the southernmost province of the country to provide services to a “wide international community” linked to the Antarctic activity and points out as ports of influence those of Cape Town (South Africa), Punta Arenas (Chile), Hobart (Australia) and Christchurch (New Zealand).

Among the possible services provided by the Pole are the mooring operations of scientific and Antarctic support vessels, the supply of fuel and lubricants, the provision of drinking water and electricity, the collection, transport and treatment or final disposal of solid and liquid waste, and the maintenance and repair of vessels and their equipment, including the provision of spare parts and unique supplies.

Also described are container storage and repair services, provision of Antarctic clothing and constructions, dry, fresh, or frozen food, hotel services for scientists or personnel in transit, and specialized training.

According to the project, the Logistics Pole should be managed by a special entity, integrated by “representatives of the main actors identified as relevant in the area (National, Provincial and Municipal State) and private entities with commercial and maritime interests in the area”.

The Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, defined the Logistics Pole planned for Ushuaia as a “guarantee of integration with Antarctica”.

Among the infrastructure to be generated is the creation of a naval repair and service workshop for airplanes and helicopters, an objective that in the short term will begin to materialize with a new hangar for the provision of services to be manufactured in Tandanor’s facilities. This procedure does not require a bidding process since it is a State-to-State agreement.

Beyond the immediate, the priority of the Ministry of Defense is focused on the reconstruction of the Petrel Antarctic base, which will be refurbished so that it can be used again as a “wintering” base and not only for the summer: the Petrel base, burned down in the ’70s and since then semi-used, is at sea level, so it has more access facilities than the Marambio base.

As for the authorities of the province, the governor of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, defined the Logistic Pole projected for Ushuaia as a “guarantee of integration with Antarctica”, which in addition to “expanding the productive matrix” of Tierra del Fuego will serve to “disarticulate the continuous British colonial advance in our South Atlantic Islands”, as he said in recent declarations.

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