The head of the Southern Command, interested in a base in Tierra del Fuego

One of the few specific questions about the country that the Secretary of State United States, Antony blink, to the chancellor Felipe Solá In its first communication, a few days ago, the question was whether it was true that China would build a military base in Tierra del Fuego. Solá denied him any agreement in this regard. This Wednesday, a few days after this conversation, the head of the southern command, the admiral Craig faller, which has precisely on its agenda a visit to Ushuaia to learn more about the ongoing projects for this strategic point in the South Atlantic near Antarctica, where the Argentine Navy has long sought funding for a new base which arouses the interest of the main powers of the world.

Versions have been around for a long time, transcending even governments. The latest rumor broke after the last conversation they had Alberto Fernandez with Xi Jinping, where they advanced in the idea of ​​the incorporation of Argentina in the initiative of the Silk Road, an association which allows strong Chinese investments in the infrastructures. This set off alarms from the State Department, which is attentive to any outpost of Asian power in the region, but especially in an area that is part of the global geopolitical conflict given its unexplored wealth of natural resources. Proof of this is Blinken’s direct consultation with Solá during their first conversation.

The Navy has a base in Tierra del Fuego which has become obsolete, so for a decade it has planned the construction of a new one, for which it needs the funding of certain $ 400 million. It already has the land to build the port, as well as the military base and a staff quarters. To this same project, the Fuegian governor Gustavo Melella wants to add the possibility of using it as a large civilian logistics base, which serves to send personnel and supplies to Antarctica, even offering tourist services. Melella met Chinese Ambassador Zou Xiaoli to get him interested in his proposal. The governor suggests that given the British reinforcement in the Falklands and the Chilean advance in Punta Arenas, Argentina should hurry and take advantage of the strategic possibilities of Ushuaia.

The plans

“The idea we’ve always had is to do it ourselves to use it ourselves, it’s not something we think other people are using. Obviously, everyone is interested in what’s going to happen there. It is a very important strategic place, it would be the southernmost maritime base in the world, with the possibility of monitoring everything that is happening in the South Atlantic and near Antarctica ”, they explained to the ministry of defense. about the initiative.

Southern Command is the Pentagon’s unit responsible for securing U.S. interests in the region. Admiral Faller arrived in the country yesterday, where he was received by the charge d’affaires MaryKay Carlson, currently responsible for the North American Embassy. Today he will meet the Minister of Defense, Agustin Rossi, and will donate three mobile health units to fight the pandemic. But his military interest will be on his visit to Ushuaia, where he will be looking to see what’s going on there with a tour of the current base. In the global confrontation unleashed in recent times, the United States is particularly wary of any advance by China and Russia in America, due to the generous supply of vaccines it has arranged to combat Covid in countries of the United States. region – the so-called “vaccine diplomacy” – like its ambitious investment plans, usually aimed at the exploitation of natural resources.

“The truth is that so far we have not received any concrete proposal from China or the United States to fund the Ushuaia military base. We have policies of military collaboration with China and the United States. , also with Russia and the European Union, but that does not mean that we are giving up our interests. We want to create the base in this strategic geopolitical location for the use of the Argentine Navy, not for another Navy to use it. This is not part of our analysis, ”they said in the Defense.