LIMA – Peru sent a diplomatic note to Chile on Friday denying that last Wednesday there was “a presence of the Peruvian military at a post on the land border” between the two countries, the Foreign Ministry said in a communique.

Chile communicated to Peru on Wednesday its opposition to the Peruvian military presence on its border.

According to the Chilean government, a unit of Peruvian troops showed up at the border that day without warning, a failure to comply with a bilateral accord.

The Peruvian note, sent to the Chilean Embassy in Lima, stresses the importance of the rules of operation for the surveillance and patrol posts for Peru-Chile border control, “in effect since 1994, and whose procedures must be observed and strictly obeyed.”

The Peruvian government repeated its belief in “the usefulness of mechanisms of mutual confidence between members of the armed forces of Peru and Chile as the ideal channels” for strengthening relations between the two neighboring countries, the communique said.

It also expressed Peru’s willingness to “continue progressing in cooperation and the bilateral and regional integration in a context of mutual respect.”

The conflict began with the establishment of a new Peruvian district on the border between the two countries, which includes a space on the land border that both nations consider their own.

The area called the “land triangle” covers 37,610 sq. meters (9 1/4 acres), which both countries claim because of their different interpretations of the border treaty of 1929 and the ruling handed down in 2014 by the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, in The Hague, with regard to their maritime border.

The creation of the La Yarada-Los Palos district, on the border between the two countries, was unanimously passed by Congress and should be enacted shortly by Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.

The Michelle Bachelet government has sent four diplomatic notes to Peru in recent days and has called home for consultation its ambassador to Lima.

The Chilean government warned Thursday that “it will not be timid” when it comes to protecting the nation’s territorial sovereignty on the border with Peru.