This was reported and published yesterday by the specialized media outletDefensa.com , confirming that high-ranking officials from the Chilean Navy and a UK Defense delegation not only coordinated the resupply of the ocean patrol vessel HMS Medway (P223) , but also boarded its deck in Punta Arenas to celebrate the continued existence of their practical ties.

The chronology of events

1.    The crossing: On Saturday, July 4, HMS Medway —aRiver Batch 2 class vessel permanently assigned by the Royal Navy for the colonial custody of the Malvina Islands—set sail from the usurped archipelago, bound for Punta Arenas. On the 5th, it entered the Strait of Magellan after having sailed through waters under Argentine control, without any diplomatic notifications (in accordance with the protocols established by the Madrid Treaty II of March 1990) to the Argentine Navy's military authorities.

2.    The docking: On Sunday, July 5, the British military vessel docked at the Arturo Prat pier in Punta Arenas.

3.    The photo of the military community: Yesterday, Friday, July 10, a British delegation headed by the Chargé d'Affaires of the UK Embassy, Nick Kennedy , along with the Defense Attaché's team, formally boarded the warship. Accompanied by official representatives of the Chilean Navy , they toured the facilities and assessed the patrol vessel's capabilities within the framework of what they openly defined as "joint efforts to strengthen bilateral cooperation in defense and security matters."

Industrial support: ASMAR Magallanes on the board

The information provided by Defensa.com, which shows the degree of connection between the Chilean and British navies, is that the visit of the joint delegation was not limited to the deck of the ship, but also included a tour of the ASMAR Magallanes facilities (Shipyards and Workshops of the Chilean Navy) in Punta Arenas.

There, the London envoys learned firsthand about the maintenance capabilities and logistical support offered by the Chilean state shipyard in the extreme zone.

This specific fact confirms the underlying bilateral objectives: Great Britain is not using Chilean Patagonia as a mere refueling station for HMS Medway; it seeks to consolidate ASMAR's facilities as the rear-guard industrial support for repairing and maintaining its occupation fleet in the South Atlantic without needing to sail the 12,000 kilometers that separate it from Europe.

The images published by the media outlet show this military and logistical partnership for defense, dedicated to supporting the NATO enclave in the Malvina Islands. In one of them, Chilean and British officers pose smiling on the deck of HMS Medway under the Royal Navy ensign. In the other, the joint delegation is shown operating from the Chilean Navy's LAM-30 "Casma" Maritime Action Boat at the same Prat Pier.

This de facto deployment, added to the operations documented in January of this year with the Royal Air Force's (RAF) A400M Atlas transport aircraft in the region, puts an end to any room for speculation or good neighborly rhetoric.

Six days after the presence of HMS Medway in the port of Punta Arenas became public, and the facts surrounding the lack of knowledge of the Argentine Navy, of the navigation of this British patrol boat through jurisdictional waters under national control, the Argentine Foreign Ministry has not issued an opinion.

 Fountain:

Defensa.com