Argentina greenlights Uruguay’s plan for expanded dredging at Montevideo Port

Uruguay announced on Wednesday (January 31) that it has received Argentina’s approval to expand the dredging of the port of Montevideo, located on the La Plata River, which both countries share—an aspiration of the Uruguayan state for over a decade.

President Luis Lacalle Pou, who has been working towards this goal since taking office in 2020, celebrated the news after setbacks in the Uruguayan delegation’s initial proposal.

“Today, we can finally move forward,” Lacalle Pou wrote on the X social network (formerly Twitter), emphasizing the “goodwill” of his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, an ultra-liberal who succeeded the center-left politician Alberto Fernández in December.

In a press conference, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Omar Paganini revealed that the Argentine delegation has approved, through the Rio de la Plata Administrative Commission (CARP), the documentation submitted by Uruguay. This documentation aims to deepen and widen the access channel to the port of Montevideo to a depth of 14 meters. Minister Paganini stated that Argentina confirmed the completeness and adequacy of the information, expressing no objections to advancing this project.

The approved project, which Paganini said will be implemented “soon” after a bidding process, will allow larger cargo ships to reach Montevideo, the main natural port on La Plata River.

See below which were the most exported goods shipped abroad last year through the Port of Montevideo. The data is from DataLiner.

Top Export Cargo for Montevideo Port | Jan 2023 – Dec 2023 | TEU

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

In a statement issued by the Argentine Foreign Ministry, the Milei administration expressed “hope that, in the future, projects presented in waters of common use will receive an agile and quick evaluation” and said it plans to present a protocol to Uruguay in this regard.

The historical rivalry between Buenos Aires and Montevideo for commercial dominance in the region, which dates back to colonial times, re-emerged during the last two decades, except for the period when the country was governed by the liberal Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

Source: BOL

Click here to read the original news reportvb: https://www.bol.uol.com.br/noticias/2024/01/31/uruguai-recebe-aval-da-argentina-para-ampliar-dragagem-do-porto-de-montevideu.htm

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