After the outbreak of a new controversy , the Chilean Foreign Minister Andrés Allamand tried to lower the tone of the conflict and said that in the next few days he will have a contact with his Argentine counterpart Felipe Solá because he says that the issue must be resolved through "diplomatic dialogue".

The decision ordered by President Sebastián Piñera, on August 23, went unnoticed almost the whole week until it was published on August 27 in the official gazette. That set off the alarms in Argentina. The following day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a harsh communiqué accusing Chile of "trying to snatch a part of the Argentine continental shelf" and calling for this conflict to be resolved.

But so far, Chile holds its ground and its Foreign Ministry assures that this is a "historical claim" because the area of the South Atlantic included in its nautical chart has always belonged to it. "Nobody appropriates what belongs to them," responded Chilean Foreign Minister Andres Allamand.

These are 200 miles that in the late 1970s almost led to an armed conflict between the two countries, a situation in which the then Pope, John Paul II, mediated until a Treaty of Peace and Friendship was reached and signed between the two countries in 1984. This is the Treaty that Chile is violating with its new nautical chart.

The dispute is centered on the maritime accesses to the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage, which control movement between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Argentine Foreign Ministry indicated that "the Chilean move intends to seize part of the Argentine continental shelf and an extensive area of the seabed and ocean floor".

This maritime space "is part of the Common Heritage of Mankind" as approved by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea", as it was pointed out.

After the signing of the Treaty, which pushes for a peaceful solution, Argentina maintains the proposal that a straight line to the south should be drawn under the islands that lie south of the Beagle Channel, such as Evout, Barnevelt and Hornos.

Thus, the Argentines would keep the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Chileans the waters of the Pacific Ocean, as dictated by the bioceanic principle of different international treaties.

But Chile has always claimed that this bioceanic principle does not exist and that, instead, these treaties gave them the islands south of the Beagle Channel. Under that pretext is that they claim that their continental shelf limit is 200 miles further east than what Argentina claims. And it was just that addition that the Piñera government made by updating the Nautical Chart.