President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner confirmed that Pope Francis has invited her and her Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet to commemorate the 30 years of the signing of the peace treaty that put an end to the conflict over the Beagle Channel.
The two head of states had originally planned to meet in San Juan province last November to commemorate the historic agreement that prevented a large scale war between the two countries, but the encounter was called off after Ms. Kirchner was was diagnosed with sigmoiditis -an inflammation of the sigmoid colon- and was hospitalised.
Francis’ invitation was delivered in a letter to Argentina’s newly-appointed ambassador to the Vatican Eduardo Valdés last week.
The Peace and Friendship treaty was signed on November 29 1984 between Santiago and Buenos Aires after a four-year-long Papal mediation by Pope John Paul II. It put an end to a longstanding border dispute over the possession of Picton, Lennox and Nueva island and adjacent maritime jurisdiction, over which the two countries where on the brink of war in 1978.
Ms. Kirchner will be travelling to the Vatican on January, for a fifth meeting with the Argentine Pope.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald