The announcement was made by the Chilean president. “We agreed with Brazilian president Lula and Bolivia’s Evo Morales to inaugurate next November the 4.000 kilometers link or Oceanic Corridor”, said Chile’s leader Sebastián Piñera during a meeting with foreign journalists.
The corridor is set to link the port of Santos, Brazil, on the Atlantic with the ports of Iquique and Arica belonging to Chile on the Pacific, added Piñera, a huge step for integration and to promote trade.
“This is an example of how countries when they join efforts they are capable of overcoming divisions from the past and together confront the challenges of the future”, said Piñera.
Chile and Bolivia since 1978 do not have formal diplomatic relations because they could not agree on a sea outlet for landlocked Bolivia. A strip of land leading to the Pacific was lost by Bolivia, when in alliance with Peru they attacked Chile in the second half of the XIXth century.
This however has not impeded the conclusion of a very ambitious project, which basically makes Brazil, among the leading economies of the world, and Mercosur main associate, together with Chile, and Bolivia, bi-oceanic countries.