The Chilean Navy deployed an unprecedented logistical operation to build a new pier and recover the airstrip in Fildes Bay, in a clear sign of its Antarctic state policy, which contrasts with Argentine passivity and raises questions about Milei's alliance with the United States to the detriment of the Malvinas claim.

To this end, the Chilean Navy's ATF-65 Janequeo tugboat transported more than 50 tons of materials to build a pier and recover the runway of the Teniente Marsh Aerodrome on King George Island , a critical infrastructure for air connectivity and scientific and military projection.

This is not an isolated action: the Chilean Antarctic Policy Council has just approved the 2026-2030 Strategic Plan, a roadmap that links science, defense and environmental sustainability as a State policy, regardless of changes in government.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, is experiencing a crisis in its National Antarctic Directorate, which has lost its direction and management power . The Logistics Hub project in Ushuaia is progressing slowly amidst controversies over whether Chinese or American capital will participate, while Chile is investing 40 billion pesos (US$452,000) in its Operation Sovereignty Base .

But the most worrying aspect for Argentina's position is the growing Chilean-British cooperation in Antarctic territories that overlap with the claims of both countries.

British forces, illegally deployed in the Malvina Islands, conducted joint exercises with Chile under Operation Austral Endurance , with the stated objective of guaranteeing secure access to Antarctica. Experts warn that this is a test of deployment capabilities in the islands with Chilean support, in a region where Argentina has maintained a sovereignty dispute with London since 1833.

Argentina's ratification of the High Seas Treaty (BBNJ) in 2024 drew criticism even from Chile, which believes that the agreement does not clearly recognize sovereignty claims in Antarctica and exposes the country to strategic risks in the South Atlantic.

Meanwhile, the expedition of ambassadors from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa organized by the Chilean Antarctic Institute expressly excluded the Argentine representation, in a gesture that the diplomacy of Santiago did not bother to explain, nor that of Buenos Aires to consult.

The contrast could not be more striking: Chile builds infrastructure, conducts military exercises, plans for decades ahead, and partners its Antarctic development with extra-continental powers. Argentina, on the other hand, engages in rhetoric, cuts budgets, and hopes that its friendship with Donald Trump can compensate for decades of strategic neglect.

The geopolitics of ice does not allow for fictions: whoever does not build docks has no sovereignty to claim.