MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina support Lan-Chile Link .

Argentina supports the Lan-Chile Link and has agreed to try and overcome any obstacles of it being placed on a scheduled basis. This was according to His Excellency, the Governor, Mr Donald Lamont. His Excellency was referring to the recent meeting in London between the UK Foreign Secretary of State, Jack Straw and Argentina's Foreign Minister, Adalberto Giavarini. The Governor mentioned two other main points of discussion about Falkland Issues. Firstly, that Jack Straw reaffirmed the United Kingdom's position on sovereignty of the Falkland Islands which will not change unless Islanders so wished. Secondly how the UK stressed the importance of co-operation on fishing issues including the close involvement of the Falkland Islands Government in that. And finally, His Excellency confirmed that the UK had dropped their objections for Buenos Aires in Argentina to become the permanent secretariat for the Antarctic Treaty. The objections were dropped on the stipulation that there was increased civilian and less military involvement. The Antarctic Treaty places a freeze on all overlapping sovereignty claims. His Excellency, the Governor finished by saying that the meeting between the two countries had been a useful and successful one .

Is there a shift in Argentine Government's dealings with Falkland Islanders?

And finally, is there a shift in Argentine Government's dealings with the Falklands? A FIG representative, Director of Mineral Resources, Phylis Rendall, attended a recent meeting in Buenos Aires about de-limitation of the continental shelf and there was agreement between UK and Argentina that that meeting had gone well. Following a number of recent events such as this, which have involved the Falkland Islands Government and Argentina, it could be inferred that the new Argentine Government under President De La Rua has changed its attitude to dealings with Falkland Islanders. The importance of FIG was affirmed this week by Secretary of State, Jack Straw with regard to fishing issues in his meeting with Giavarini. In addition, the recent informal meeting between Giavarini and Councillors Birmingham and Cockwell in New York showed a change in the Argentine gov