Peruvian Foreign Minister Eda Rivas said Friday that her country and Chile will finish fixing the exact coordinates for their new maritime border by late March 2014, possibly during a high-level meeting in Lima.
She made the announcement after a meeting between senior Peruvian and Chilean government officials on Thursday in Santiago, where they discussed the implementation of the ruling recently delivered by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
On her arrival in Lima from Chile, Rivas told reporters that the precise geographical coordinates "will be ready around the 24th or 25th of March."
"It was important for us to move forward with the execution of the judgement and complete the task of determining the geographic coordinates of the maritime boundary," she stated.
In addition to Rivas, the so-called "2 plus 2" meeting in Santiago was attended by Peruvian Defense Minister Pedro Cateriano, Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno and Chilean Defense Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter. It lasted for over 14 hours.
According to a joint statement, the next meeting will be held in Lima, capital of Peru, in late March this year.
On January 27, 2014, the United Nations' highest court ruled that the maritime border between Chile and Peru follows the parallel up to 80 nautical miles and an equidistant line out to 200 miles, granting Peru about 50,000 square kilometers of ocean. The ICJ did not, however, rule on specific coordinates.
"In view of the circumstances of the present case, the Court has defined the course of the maritime boundary between the Parties without determining the precise geographical co-ordinates," the ruling said. “Moreover, the Court has not been asked to do so in the Parties’ final submissions. The Court expects that the Parties will determine these co-ordinates in accordance with the present Judgment, in the spirit of good neighborliness."
(END) CCR/DLG/EEP