section_path: Politics/Foreign relations
section_name: Foreign relations
paragraph_text: Foreign relations
  
  Foreign policy is handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, which answers to the President. The country is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies of the world, and a founding member of the UN, WBG, WTO and OAS.In 2012 Argentina was elected again to a two-year non-permanent position on the United Nations Security Council and is participating in major peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Cyprus, Western Sahara and the Middle East. Argentina is described as a middle power.
  
  A prominent Latin American and Southern Cone regional power, Argentina co-founded OEI and CELAC.It is also a founding member of the Mercosur block, having Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela as partners. Since 2002 the country has emphasized its key role in Latin American integration, and the block—which has some supranational legislative functions—is its first international priority.
  
  Argentina claims 965,597 km (372,819 sq mi) in Antarctica, where it has the world's oldest continuous state presence, since 1904. This overlaps claims by Chile and the United Kingdom, though all such claims fall under the provisions of the 1961 Antarctic Treaty, of which Argentina is a founding signatory and permanent consulting member, with the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat being based in Buenos Aires.
  
  Argentina disputes sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas), and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as Overseas Territories. Argentina is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Argentina is a Major non-NATO ally since 1998 and an OECD candidate country since January 2022.