Prince William in the Falklands; begins briefings period and familiarization flight
UK’s Prince William arrived on Thursday to the Falkland Islands amid simmering tensions between Britain and Argentina over the disputed South Atlantic Islands and in the year of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands conflict.
William’s arrival, ahead of a tour of duty as a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot, comes as the Royal Navy prepares to send one of its most advanced new warships to the area.
The heir to the British throne will be crewing one of two search-and-rescue helicopters on call 24 hours a day for missions flying out of a large British military compound, 45 minutes from Port Stanley, the Islands' capital.
A UK Ministry of Defence spokesman revealed that the Prince “will shortly take up SAR duties post a period of briefings and a familiarisation flight”.
Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Héctor Timerman slammed Prince William's visit, saying it is an act of provocation as the prince “will be wearing the uniform of a conqueror when he deploys”.
However, the British Ministry of Defence stressed that the six weeks mission was routine for the RAF search and rescue teams. Likewise the Royal Navy press officer rejected suggestions the decision to send the ultra-modern destroyer HMS Dauntless to the region represented an escalation of the UK's position.
Referring to the deployment of HMS Dauntless and William's tour of duty as an RAF search and rescue pilot, Timerman accused London of “attempting to militarize the conflict'”.
Likewise, the Argentine Foreign Ministry released a statement indicating that “Governments should avoid the temptation of falling into a discourse ... that aims to distract public attention from belt-tightening economic policies”.
Prince William’s six-week tour of duty means he should be back in the UK before April 2, the date of the Argentine invasion of the Falklands in 1982 and obviously of June 14, Liberation Day by a British Task Force, in which his uncle Prince Andrew was action as a helicopter pilot.
Suggested Stories
-
May 25th 2012
Cameron pays tribute to Falklands’ conflict dead and reaffirms Islanders right to self determination
-
May 24th 2012
Falklands’ service to honour British Forces who lost their lives when landing for the recovery of the Islands
-
May 23rd 2012
Falklands’ economy “booming” in spite of Argentina’s efforts of a blockade
-
May 23rd 2012
Following the Falklands’ ad incident Britain/Argentina at the opening hockey match in London
17 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
Irrational British colonial fantasy.
Much be part of Spanish origins that won't let people accept these things!
ARGENTINA must stop it,
If they really want to scare us send Camilla instead.
if not, why are you all complaining so much,
you tell us, argentina is going great guns, but no ammo.
if you was doing so well, you wouldent need help all the time, would you .
John Fuckwit, The Duke is a pilot in the employ of HM's RAF, not only that he is a search and rescue pilot, he trained like any other pilot.
Hes done a lot of Charity work around the globe, in fact probably too much and done far more for those less fortunate around the globe than you've ever done in your miserable hate filled existence.......Your achievements to date John Fuckwit?.....a couple of mediocre posts on Mercopress devoid of any fact :)
dipstick of the year, you are an idiot, boy!
@6Marcos,
briton is easy to understand. are you sure that the fault doesn't lie with you?
Don't be so resentful.
We can't have everything that we want.
l know that you want the Falklands, but,guess what?
You can't have them.
They are not yours anyway.
Good morning! Coffee time!
But the Spanish and British are like blood brothers, they both sign secret deal to send Spanish troops to Afghanistan. Spanish government allow millions of English to live in Spain and colonise the place. They may make noise over Gibraltar but they do no more. When I visit Spain it was worse than my time in Quebec, everyone spoke English and there was English pubs and English people everywhere!!!
Something for you to enjoy your afternoon tea...
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/02/falklands-islanders-sold-out
You understand English very well,
So skiddadle,
Filippo , the brain of a dolphin is quicker than you,
But as you DON’T understand English we will just ignore you,
Ok.
Don't insult the dolphins! They are MUCH, MUCH higher up the scale than Flippers.
@11Marcos,
Peter Preston is a traitor. You can have him.
Peter Preston is moving to Malvinas very soon, invite him for a cup of tea.
is lost in the south atlantic, even the clever dolphins ignore him,
thus he drowns,
and all because he couldnt find something that didnt exist .
Given the choice between being diplomacy and child like spats of anger and lies, they choose child like spats of anger and lies.
Argentina has never recovered from being a wannabe be Axis power in the 1930's. Argentina's version of fascism (like that of Spain's) remained undefeated by WW2 Allied powers. It hadn't even had to fight a real civil war to maintain power, just murder 50,000-100,000 of its own unarmed political activists and we all know how easy that was for their brave and heroic military men, like their hero Commander Astiz.
It took the Falklands War to shake the Argentines into some semblance of reality. Remove their military government and see the Americans as something other than a benevolent uncle, rather more like a the uncle you kept your children away from, you know the one in the old mack who always had his hands in his pockets and a grimace on his lips.
But within a few short years a girl came alone, a wannabe Eva Peron and took them all the way back to year zero! And the Argentine people gave up their collective memory and switched back to servile child.
In the West it's very difficult to understand how the average Argentine thinks. We have to imagine how our own per-adolescent children think and we can then get into their mindset. Give them a box of toy soldiers & some flags to play with and they are as happy as pie, tell them that they can't own Tracey Island though and they will cry their eyes out.
At school, the teachers would always tell them “Tracey Island” was their's. Even though the reality was, it wasn't!
What an absolutely spiffing idea, Marcos.
lf he wasn't hanged drawn & quartered before he got to my house, he would wish he had been.
Marcos, can you collect the pieces, please?
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!