MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina announces Malvinas sovereignty presence with patrol vessels
Defence minister Nilda Garré Argentine Defence minister Nilda Garré said that four navy patrol vessels will be sent to the “Mar Argentino” (South Atlantic) to show presence and the willingness of Argentina to exercise sovereignty over the (Argentine) Falklands/Malvinas Islands.
The patrol vessels are under construction in a joint project with Chile and the first one should be ready for operations early next year said Ms Garré during a brief interview with journalists from the official news agency Noticias Argentinas.
“Now begins the construction of four ocean going patrol vessel to complement the tasks of the Coast Guard which is to patrol up to mile 200. We’re not talking or planning to send troops to the zone but simply to show the presence of Argentina and our willingness to exercise sovereignty over our maritime areas”, added Ms Garré.
The minister revealed that the ocean faring patrol vessels were a regional project, “from which Brazil dropped out” but it was followed up, in all its dimension by Chile that developed the “basic engineering” for such vessels.
“They are inter-operational vessels, practically similar to those the Chileans have and the idea is not to delay the decision. Next year the first patrol vessel will be in charge of complying with the naval task of patrolling our waters and imposing our sovereignty”, pointed out Ms Garré.
In related news Deputy Foreign Secretary Taccetti said that the current situation over the Falklands was triggered when the British begun exploring for oil “in a sea that does not belong to them, not do the Islands”.
That is why “the decisions regarding fisheries, oil exploration and exploitation and maritime navigation in the zone”.
Taccetti said that the current Argentine diplomatic approach is helping to build a “world consensus on the issue. The British will have at some point to sit and negotiate sovereignty because of world pressure. In all forums we bring up the subject and it’s working, consensus is building”.
“Britain’s position is unsustainable and even inside Britain there are sectors with the idea of putting an end to the dispute. Some European countries are supporting us, although tepidly still but a growing majority favour a negotiated solution”, concluded the top Argentine official
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Read all commentsLOL ....... funny :-)
May 29th, 2010 - 06:55 am 0Of course Argentina is entitled to exercise sovereignty in its waters, but if it tries to exercise sovereignty over Falklands waters then I can see these new ships going down faster than a diamond drill looking for oil :-)
“Taccetti said that the current Argentine diplomatic approach is helping to build a “world consensus on the issue. The British will have at some point to sit and negotiate sovereignty because of world pressure. In all forums we bring up the subject and it’s working, consensus is building”.”
May 29th, 2010 - 08:41 am 0What world consensus? What world pressure that will force the UK to sit and negotiate sovereignty? Which forums are the Argentines having success in getting others to agree to their case? What forums of any weight? The ICJ? Of course not - Argentina is far too scared to do that. Instead they lie about what the UN has actually said etc.
Hmmm! What did Spain say to Argentina when she tried to bring it up at the EU presidency held by Spain? Yep - some consensus indeed.
And if these negotiations did take place - would Argentina go into them open minded and willing to give up its spurious claim? Would they still want any negotiations to have a preamble that stated that they were to be about a handover rather than a true negotiation wiithout a predetermined outcome? Would Argentina recognise that it would have to be a negotiation that the islanders first ask for and that would include them as the third party? Of course it wouldn't - that is why no one takes Argentina seriously and rightly ignores them...yes they may play lip service when it suits them but when push came to shove they never back Argentina up with anything solid.
““Britain’s position is unsustainable and even inside Britain there are sectors with the idea of putting an end to the dispute. ”
The UK position is far from unsustainable. Yes there may be the odd maverick in the UK who agrees with Argentina but there are those in Argentina who agree with the UK...so what!
”Some European countries are supporting us, although tepidly still but a growing majority favour a negotiated solution”
Who? And what are they actually saying to Argentina? Oh yes - nothing really but a negotiated solution but not taking sides
That's good. The Royal Navy will have Type 45 and Astute subs in service by then. You are entitled to patrol your 200 miles but enter the Falklands waters and your ships will be destroyed. They will sink faster than the Belgrano.
May 29th, 2010 - 08:57 am 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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