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Presentation
The Basque Delegation in Chile was reopened in June 2004 under Decree 25/2003 of 11th February. The First Basque Delegation had existed in the country from 1941 until 1973.
This Delegation maintains and strengthens the historical bond existing between the Basque Country and Chile in a wide variety of areas and subjects.
On the one hand, four institutional Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with the Ministries of Economy (Fishing and Environment), Health and Agriculture, in areas ranging from health management to training in the field of fishing.
Moreover, the activity developed by this Delegation, together with the detection of mutual interests in different areas, has led to the creation of an intense flow of institutional visits between Chile and the Basque Country. Thus, visits have been made to Euskadi by Ministers and Vice-Ministers from Mideplan, of the Economy and Energy, Agriculture and Fishing, the President of the Senate, the Intendant of the Metropolitan Region, CONAMA or the Advisor to the President of the Republic, to name but a few. On the other hand, visits have been made to Chile, among others, by the Vice-Lehendakari or the Ministers for Housing and Social Affairs, Health, Environment, Culture and Agriculture and Fishing.
The Basque Diaspora is another reference, maintaining fluid relations with the two Basque Centres existing in the country: Santiago and Valparaiso.
In order to transmit the Basque culture in Chile, enormously successful courses are being given in the four most important universities in the country on Basque Language and Culture, thus bringing the Basque Country closer to Chilean society as a whole.
Similarly, Basque business in Chile, with 27 commercial and productive concerns already underway, is backed by the Delegation to ensure the success of its endeavours.
Finally, we should underline that the intense work carried out by the Delegation in Chile gave rise, among others, to the holding in the Basque Country of the 1st
Mixed Commission on Cooperation between the Basque Country and Chile, where collaboration agreements were drawn up with respect to widely ranging subjects including agriculture, fishing, education, health, science and technology, the environment or cooperation in development, to name but a few.
In addition to these work areas, our intention is to place emphasis on triangular cooperation with countries geographically close to one another, collaboration with international networks involving the participation of Basque institutions, the intensification of relations with Basque Centres and collectivities, or the exploration of collaboration possibilities arising from the Free Trade Treaty signed with the EU.
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