Argentina announces lab construction on antarctic Vega and Snow Hill islands

That Argentina has developed a thorough plan to consolidate its territorial expansionism in the South Atlantic, South Pacific, and Antarctica is a reality that the candid Chilean Foreign Ministry prefers to ignore.

In this line, the Casa Rosada announces the construction of three new multidisciplinary laboratories for the Esperanza, San Martín, and Orcadas bases, together with new shelters on Vega and Cerro Nevado islands, San Martín, and Orcadas bases, together with new shelters on Vega and Snow Hill islands near Marambio Base will be built during 2023 by Argentina in the trans-Andean territorial claim and which was made official in a document signed by the Ministers of Science, Daniel Filmus, of Defense, Jorge Taiana, and of Foreign Affairs, Santiago Cafiero.

The initiative was presented at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense, where the officials confirmed that the buildings were designed by Argentine Army engineers who expect to complete their construction during the next Antarctic summer campaign in 2023 and that the Ministry of Science will finance them with 200 million pesos within the framework of the Federal Program to Build Science, according to an official cable from Télam.

The Minister of Defense, Jorge Taiana, affirmed that “these three new laboratories in three permanent bases are another example of the effort made by the government to sustain our sovereign look towards the South Atlantic, our islands, and Antarctica”.

This first stage of the project will increase the quantity and quality of the scientific activities to be developed on these bases, taking advantage of the differential potential of each Antarctic base arising from their geographical location and their own local and environmental conditions.

In a second agreement to be signed in the future, the execution of the second stage of the project will begin, which will include the equipping of laboratories and scientific shelters at Petrel Base and the Millerand Island, Margarita Bay, and Dusse Bay shelters, over 24 months, with projected completion in 2024, and will be financed with US$3.36 million, also by the scientific portfolio.

The initiative aims to strengthen scientific research in the region, making Argentine science more competitive at the national and international levels in the context of the Antarctic Treaty System.

With information from Infogate