Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile

This afternoon the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heraldo Muñoz, accompanied by Agent Claudio Grossman and Co-agent Alfonso Silva, met with President Michelle Bachelet at La Moneda Palace. The objective of the reunion was to inform the governor about the actual state of the demand presented by Bolivia at the Court of Justice in The Hague. The demand claims a legal obligation for Chile to negotiate sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean.

At the end of the meeting, which lasted for about an hour, Minister Muñoz informed this was "a cordial reunion, which has been a reiteration of the conviction we have in this case and also the rejection of any threat towards our territorial integrity". He also affirmed the President "has expressed all her trust in this team and has requested to be updated on the next steps of this process".

The Chief of Diplomacy in Chile reminded that the demand presented by Bolivia on April 2013 at the International Court of Justice "has entered a second written phase". The first phase corresponded to the deliverance of Bolivia's Memorial at the Court of The Hague, which was answered by Chile in a Counter-Memorial.

During this second phase, Minister Muñoz explained "Bolivia has until March 21 to present its Republic to the Counter-Memorial. After this, there will be another deadline, in the written phase, on September 21 when Chile will be able to present what is known as a Rejoinder".

"We are working on this" Foreign Minister Muñoz pointed out. "The Agent, the Co-agent, and I have informed the President of our work with international and national lawyers, factual and legal arguments which assist us on the rejection of the Bolivian demand and also the inexistence, for us, of an apparent obligation to negotiate".

On the other side, he informed that they'll meet "all the necessary times needed. The Agent has indicated that we will have meetings here in Chile and abroad from now until September when Chile presents its written argument in response to what Bolivia delivers".

Once the second written phase is concluded, the International Court of Justice will begin the oral phase where allegations of both States will be heard, and after this, a sentence will be dictated.

Agent Claudio Grossman was given his position by President Bachelet on November 23, 2016. Grossman is a lawyer from the University of Chile and holds a Doctorate in Law from the Amsterdam University. In the present, he is one of the 34 members of the International Law Commission of the United Nations for the 2017-2021 period.

Co-agent Alfonso Silva is a career diplomat and also a lawyer from the University of Chile with postgraduate studies in John Hopkins and Georgetown University in Washington D.C., United States. He was Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs for two years and Ambassador of Chile in Jamaica, India, and Canada.