Chile, Bolivia to discuss sea access

Chilean and Bolivian officials will hold talks on sea access for landlocked Bolivia next month, a Bolivian diplomat said on Friday.

Bolivia is seeking a land corridor crossing the Chilean port city of Arica for access to the Pacific Ocean, said Roberto Finot, Bolivia's consul in Santiago.

Bolivia and Chile broke off full diplomatic ties in 1978 over disputes about the issue of sea access.

The two countries have not officially discussed the issue since 1987, when foreign ministers from both countries met in Uruguay but failed to reach an agreement.

Finot said Bolivia might consider using Chilean ports for exports if the dispute was resolved.

Bolivia will also raise the topic at the June general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), to be held in the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo.

OAS General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza told Chilean media on Friday that he hoped that the governments in Chile and Bolivia would be able to end the conflict and open diplomatic relations.

Insulza, who had recently returned from Bolivia, where he met Bolivia's President Evo Morales, said the OAS would encourage Bolivia and Chile to use dialogue to resolve their problem.

"It is hard to imagine that Bolivia and Chile will have a better moment to speak than this one," he said.

It was good that Morales and his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, had begun their terms a few weeks apart and would have four years of working together, he added.

"Chile-Bolivia relations were often interrupted when the governments changed."

Bolivia lost 120 square km of territory and 400 km of coastline in the three-way 1879-1884 War of the Pacific, in which Peru's and Bolivia's armies laid siege to Chile, which won the war and took land from both of its rivals.

Bolivia's goal is to negotiate sea access through northern Chile so that its natural resources and agricultural products can be sold to the booming markets of the Asia-Pacific region. But Chile has opposed ceding territory to Bolivia.

Source: Xinhua