La Paz, September 11 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Bolivia's President Evo Morales said he was confident about the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) competence on ruling the territorial dispute between Bolivia and Chile. 

"From the moment that the claim was admitted, the Court (ICJ) knows it is competent," said Morales, during a meeting with workers in the city of Cochabamba. 

The president reacted to the statement made on Wednesday by the ICJ, which announced it will rule on its own jurisdiction to solve the dispute by Sept. 24.

Bolivia brought a claim against Chile in 2013, based on almost a century’s worth of diplomatic and historical documents in which Santiago committed to resolve the issue of Bolivia's access to the sea.
   
However, the Chilean government questioned the competence of the ICJ to resolve the dispute, claiming that it had been resolved by a treaty signed by both nations in 1904, before the ICJ was founded in 1945.

Morales reiterated his commitment to The Hague's ruling and explained that the ICJ had been set up by the United Nations to achieve justice.

“There are a series of international procedures we must meet with international tribunals, and we have fulfilled them thanks to national and international experts to develop this claim in the Hague,” added the Bolivian president.

In May,  both countries held hearings for four days with the ICJ to justify their positions regarding the jurisdiction of the court to rule on the dispute.

La Paz lost its access to the sea after the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), when Chile gained the province of Antofagasta from Peru and Tacna, Arica and Tarapaca from Bolivia.