On this day, 41 years ago, on January 23, 1984 (December 21, 1983 in the lunar calendar), Argentina and Chile signed the Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship. On January 23, 1984, the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile signed the "Joint Statement of Peace and Friendship" in the Vatican, reaffirming the determination of the two governments to peacefully resolve the territorial dispute over the three islands in the Beagle Strait. The Beagle Strait is an east-west natural waterway near Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, with a total length of about 120 kilometers. The long-standing focus of dispute between Afghanistan and Chile has been the ownership of the three islands of Picton, Nueva and Lennox in the southeast of the Strait. The total area of these three islands is only 345 square kilometers. The main reason for the long-standing dispute between Afghanistan and Chile is the important geographical location of the Beagle Strait and its rich seabed resources. When the two countries signed the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Trade and Navigation in 1855, they only generally recognized their respective borders when they left Spanish rule. When the Boundary Treaty was signed in 1881 and the Additional Protocol was signed in 1893, the issue of territorial sovereignty was also not mentioned. As a result, border disputes between the two countries in the region continue to occur. In 1902, Argentina and Chile signed the General Treaty on Arbitration and entrusted the United Kingdom to arbitrate the dispute, but the problem was still not resolved. In 1972, the two governments agreed to submit the 1881 Arab-Chile Border Agreement to the International Arbitration Tribunal for adjudication. On May 2, 1977, the United Kingdom announced that an arbitration panel composed of five members of the International Court of Justice had decided to award the three islands southeast of the Beagle Strait to Chile. Chile said it accepted the ruling, but Argentina refused. Since then, the conflict between the two countries intensified, and each side deployed troops on the border, and war almost broke out. However, this situation was very unfavorable to both countries. Therefore, in late January 1984, under the mediation of the Pope, the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile held talks in the Vatican and signed the "Joint Statement of Peace and Friendship."