Foreign relations of Chile

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Chile
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Chile

Constitution President Michelle Bachelet National Congress Senate Chamber of Deputies Political parties Elections President: 2005-2006, 2009 Legislature: 2005 Regions Provinces Foreign relations
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Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile assumed a two-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2003 and is an active member of the UN family of agencies, serving as a member of the Commission on Human Rights and participating in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the second Summit of the Americas in 1998, was the chair of the Rio Group in 2001, hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002, and the APEC summit and related meetings in 2004. In 2005 hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial conference. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile and has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. After signing the 1984 Peace and Friendship Treaty it settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s, although the border between both countries in the Southern Ice Field from Mount Fitzroy to Mount Daudet is still officially undefined ^[1]^[2]. In August of 2006, however, Argentina published a tourist map of placing the disputed region within the borders of Argentina. Chile filed an official complaint with Argentina, sparking renewed efforts to settle the dispute.

Chile and Bolivia have severed and resumed diplomatic relations various times throughout history. Most recently, Generals Pinochet and Banzer resumed diplomatic relations and attempted to settle territorial disputes. They met in the small, border town of Charaña and Pinochet agreed to give Bolivia a small strip of land between the Chilean city of Arica and the Peruvian border. However, treaties between Peru and Chile specified that Chile must consult Peru before granting any land to a third party in the area of Tarapacá. Peru's leftist ruler, General Juan Velasco, was, however, and ideological enemy of the rightists Pinochet and Banzer. Additionally the man who Pinochet deposed, Salvador Allende, had been a close friend of Velasco. Therefore, Peru did not accept the Charaña proposal and instead drafted its own proposal, in which numerous land and sea areas would be shared between the three nations. Pinochet did not agree, and ties with Bolivia were once again severed on 1978. The two countries maintain consular relations.

Chile does not currently maintain diplomatic relations with Benin, Bolivia, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Comoros, Cyprus (although , Chilean soldiers served in the UN's Argentine Army battalion stationed there) , Djibouti, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Macedonia, Niger, San Marino, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Togo, Taiwan, or Yemen. Regarding Western Sahara, Chile has sent contradictory comments. Chile's Senate speaker Sergio Romero has said that Chile does not recognize Western Sahara's independence [1] [2], but Chile's Ministry of Foreign Relations website includes Western Sahara as an independent country with which Chile has no diplomatic relations.