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| Alberto van Klaveren Stork, Chilean Agent to the Court [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
The Hague: The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal
judicial organ of the United Nations, has closed its public hearings in the
case concerning the maritime dispute between Peru and Chile.
Chile (the Respondent State) concluded the hearings with its
second round of oral Argument.
Ambassador Alberto van Klaveren Stork, Chilean Agent to the
Court requested the Court to dismiss Peru's claims.
Stork said, "Chile respectfully requests the Court to
dismiss Peru's claims in their entirety and to adjudge and declare that, one,
the respective maritime zone entitlements of Chile and Peru have been fully
delimited by agreement; two those maritime zone entitlements are delimited by a
boundary following the parallel of latitude passing through the most seaward
boundary marker of the land boundary between Chile and Peru, known as Hito No.
1, having a latitude of 18° 21' 00" S under WGS84 Datum; and three, Peru has no entitlement to any
maritime zone extending to the south of that parallel."
On Tuesday, the Applicant State (Peru) had made its own
second round of oral Argument.
"The Republic of Peru requests the Court to adjudge and
declare that: one, the delimitation between the respective maritime zones
between the Republic of Peru and the Republic of Chile, is a line starting at
'Point Concordia', defined as the intersection with the low-water mark of a
10-kilometre radius arc, having as its centre the first bridge over the River
Lluta of the Arica-La Paz railway and equidistant from the baselines of both
Parties, up to a point situated at a distance of 200 nautical miles from those
baselines, and, two, beyond the point where the common maritime border ends,
Peru is entitled to exercise exclusive sovereign rights over a maritime area
lying out to a distance of 200 nautical miles from its baselines," said Allan
Wagner, Peruvian Agent to the Court.
The dispute concerns the delimitation of the boundary
between the maritime zones of the two States in the Pacific Ocean including the
recognition in favour of Peru of a large maritime zone lying within 200
nautical miles of Peru's coast, and thus appertaining to Peru, but which Chile
considers to be part of the high seas.
This session took place, exceptionally, in the auditorium of
The Hague Academy of International Law. -UNifeed