This week, Argentina once again ratified its sovereignty over 5 thousand square kilometers of continental shelf in the South Atlantic that Chile claimed as its own in the latest update of its naval charts.

Several analysts say this is an attempt by the government of president Sebastián Piñera to stoke nationalist sentiment in Chile and thus regain the initiative. Despite promising the situation will be resolved via diplomatic dialogue, the Chilean Head of State made new statements that provoked more tension between both South American neighbours.

Mr Piñera addressed Chileans last Friday and assured them that their country "is exercising its legitimate right and this is an obligation for all presidents, something that's been understood by every President before".

The Chilean move means ignoring a 1984 Peace and Friendship Agreement, brokered with mediation of then Pope John Paul II, that placed the aforementioned five thousand kilometers of continental shelf under Argentine jurisdiction.

In remarks made on Argentine Public TV, Foreign Minister Felipe Solá ratified Argentine sovereignty over the maritime territory, citing the 1984 Treaty. Argentina's top diplomat said that what is at stake "are 5 thousand kilometers of Argentine continental shelf, this is beyond objection...also at stake are 25 thousand kilometers of seabed and subsoil, which are part of the World Heritage and that Chile, with this untimely decree, claims as its own".

At the same time, this weekend the Argentine press reported that a British company is planning to build a mega-port in the Malvinas Islands within the next two years. For this reason, the government of Tierra del Fuego has already filed a complaint stating that the initiative seeks to take away the jurisdiction of the port of Ushuaia, also warning of the project's negative economic and environmental consequences.

In addition, this is yet another indication that the British government continues to ignore the claim that Argentina submits every year before the UN -which is endorsed by numerous countries- on the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands, snatched by the UK 188 years ago.

In this context, Argentine analysts considered that the Piñera administration's expansionist action comes in coordination with the Malvinas port project, noting that the UK and Chile have been historical allies.