MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Malvinas: Surprise Message to Argentina”.

La Nacion's front page headline today says “Malvinas: Surprise Message toArgentina”.

Inside it has three major articles all saying more or less the same thingand all about the letter from Falklands Councillors calling for acooperation agreement with Argentina to combat illegal fishing.

The principal article entitled "Sorpresivo Acercamiento Malvinense"(Surprise Malvinas Rapprochement or Coming Together) is all about theFalklands Authorities calling for joint action with Argentina to combat theillegal fishing of squid - which it says is a novelty from the Islanderswho are very resistant to dialogue with Argentina.

It says the depredation of the squid is on a large scale, and asksfor the speeding up of the coordination of joint patrols forseen by theJuly 14th Agreement. Over this it quotes the letter as saying: "Thediscussions have progressed extremely slowly and are not even close to aconclusion". To which the Argentine Foreign Ministry has replied that thestruggle against illegal fishing agreed by Britain and Argentina "has beendone with great efficiency".

The article makes the point that combating illegal fishing is theonly subject in which the Islanders have called for cooperation with"Continental Argentina". And that this is because fishing represents 60% ofthe Islanders income.

It says the call for cooperation was signed by Richard Cockwellbut that its text was agreed at a meeting with other Councillors in PuertoArgentino, and that the Councillors decided to send it to the Press and notthe Argentine government because in contrast to the period of office of DiTella, the present government doesn't recognise them as part of theproblem.

The article goes on to say that the July 14th Agreement calls forthe "maintenance and conservation of the fishing stocks in the SouthAtlantic" but that the matter is very sensitive and has not reached thestage of agreement yet. Finally, it mentions the arrival of John Battle in PuertoArgentino yesterday.

La Nación has two other slightly smaller articles about this. One, entitled"A claim that seals the relationship with Argentina" is all about how theIslanders booming economic interests have effectively forced them intodialogue over fishing with the Argentines, and that this has been on theagen