MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Firmer” relationship with Islands.

In an interview published in this week's edition of Gente magazine in Argentina, Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa talks about the country's relations with Europe and the United States and is also questioned about the Falkland Islands:

Has there been any reaction from England following the President's message at the United Nations?

"No. The positions are well known. Argentina, without over-reacting with bears and Christmas cards, does not have to renounce its historical claim and must recuperate the relationship it had with the malvinenses in numerous areas. For example we asked David Barenboim to set up an orchestra of Argentine children and children from the Islands; we are working with the relatives on the monument to those who died and at the same time we maintain our historical claim maybe not as sweetly, maybe more firmly...I was a Malvinas volunteer, so to me it's something I was interested in even before I became foreign minister.

Maybe, there are no pompous gestures, as there were during Guido Di Tella's time but does this mean that you intend to leave the Kelpers to one side in the negotiations?

"The Kelpers have been British citizens since 1983. So that, United Kingdom resolution throws their argument that it is an autonomous land out of the window. So, we have to talk to the British government. They are very kind with them, I understand their feelings, but we have ours, and as the president said, we come from a malvinera culture."