Why does Uruguay allow ships from Malvinas to resupply in its ports?

A deal between the Malvinas Islands government and the city of Punta Arenas, in Chile, to establish a permanent maritime supply route may change the dynamics sustaining the archipelago’s economy, which until now had largely depended on Uruguayan ports as its primary resupply points in South America.

Tensions surrounding the sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the islands recently reached their highest level in years after Buenos Aires filed lawsuits and imposed sanctions on companies linked to an oil drilling project set to begin next year near the islands, known as Sea Lion. 

The project is led by Israeli firm Navitas Petroleum and British company Rockhopper Exploration.

The Malvinas-Punta Arenas deal has added another chapter to the diplomatic tensions. A delegation from Malvinas is scheduled to visit Punta Arenas in late September to advance negotiations on the deal, and the first ship is expected to set sail in November.

The agreement covers the provision of food, liquefied petroleum gas, machine supplies, construction materials, and other products needed for the oil drilling project’s infrastructure.

The Argentine government has yet to comment on the Punta Arenas-Malvinas deal, which was revealed on September 3, the exact same day that Argentine President Javier Milei visited Santiago to meet his right-wing counterpart, José Antonio Kast — who said the agreement was “between privates companies” and that Chile supported Argentina’s claim on Malvinas.

But a group of Argentine Malvinas War veterans demanded that Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno formally protest the agreement and impose sanctions on the Chilean companies that will be in charge of the project: Easter Island Naviera and Easter Island Logistics, as well as the Falkland Islands Development.

The veterans said the maritime route would benefit the exploration and exploitation of natural resources located on the Argentine continental platform near the Malvinas, which Argentina considers illegal.

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However, while the Puntas Arenas announcement is causing much controversy, no such contention seems to exist around the fact that over the past two decades, Uruguayan ports such as Montevideo and Piriápolis have been some of the main places in South America where ships coming or going to Malvinas have gone to resupply, since they are banned from entering Argentine waters. 

The deal with Punta Arenas would cut in half the roughly 2,000 km distance between Montevideo and Puerto Argentino, the capital of the Malvinas.

But why does Uruguay, one of Argentina’s closest allies, allow ships on route to the islands — which they consider Argentine —- to dock there, despite a prohibition approved years ago, and why has this not caused as much anger as with Chile?

Malvinas and Uruguay

Malvinas historian Federico Lorenz told the Herald that maritime trips between Montevideo and the Malvinas “used to be regular” around the mid-20th century, and Argentines who wanted to travel to the islands needed to go to Montevideo first.

Things changed from the early 1970s until the 1982 war, when “there was a significantly larger flow of goods and other items from mainland Argentina to the Malvinas Islands.” But all that stopped after the UK victory, Lorenz said.

After the war, Argentina banned ships from the Malvinas from transiting its waters and using its ports.

In 2011, the Mercosur trade bloc signed a resolution under which all its members at the time — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay  — committed to blocking the entry into their ports of ships flying the Malvinas government flag.

Chile was not included in that agreement because it is not a member of Mercosur — it is currently an associated state — and can therefore trade freely with the Malvinas, albeit at a potential diplomatic cost.

However, this did not mean that ships from the Malvinas stopped entering Uruguayan waters, despite Uruguay’s support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim. 

Given the large economic gains the country received as a restocking port, in particular for ships that fish in the South Atlantic waters surrounding the archipelago, Uruguay decided to exploit a loophole to comply with the Mercosur blockage while maintaining its preferential position.

In 2012, then President José Mujica maintained the country’s commitment to ban ships carrying a Malvinas flag, but allowed them to access Uruguayan ports if they changed their flag to the British Red Ensign, the United Kingdom’s Merchant Navy flag.

In recent years, vessels have frequently entered its ports after changing their flag. La Mañana, a Uruguayan news outlet, reported in July that Malvinas ships “dock, undergo repairs, and restock” at the ports of Montevideo and Piriápolis. 

This also includes “foreign fleets fishing under licenses granted by London” near the Malvinas, “as well as ships from British expeditions linking the islands to Antarctica.”

“Every year, hundreds of vessels linked, directly or indirectly, to that presence use Montevideo as their main port of call. It is a mechanism that is not very visible, but it is strategic,” an article from the outlet stated.

Diplomatic effects

Guillermo Carmona, who led the Malvinas secretariat between 2021-2023 during the previous Argentine administration, told the Herald that “Uruguay pledged to not favor the logistics” of the Malvinas but in reality allows ships coming from the islands with the Red Ensign flag to enter.

“This is questionable, because Uruguay can still establish that the ships are destined for the logistic maintenance, support of illegal fishing activities, and resupply of the Malvinas,” he said.

Still, Argentina is far from entering into a diplomatic conflict with Uruguay over these practices, which currently remain under the radar in the Malvinas news agenda and public debate. 

One reason could be that there is no established shipment service to and from Montevideo, like the one that is planned between the islands and Punta Arenas.

Another could be the distance: Montevideo is located 200 km north of Buenos Aires, far from the area of conflict surrounding the Malvinas.

Punta Arenas, on the other hand, is located in a key geopolitical area: on the coast of the Strait of Magellan, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at the southern tip of the American continent, with direct access to Antarctica.

Editorial disclaimer: Although the UK refers to the territory as the “Falklands Islands,” Argentina strongly contests this name. The Buenos Aires Herald uses “Malvinas” to refer to the islands.