MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rammell in Buenos Aires and CPA in Stanley

A week of significant political events begins this Monday in the South Atlantic. British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell will be arriving in Buenos Aires for two days of talks that will include Britain's conditioned support to Argentina in the IMF Executive Board and Falklands air links to the continent, while in Stanley the local government will be inaugurating the 35th regional conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, CPA.

According to the agenda published in the Argentine press Mr. Rammell this Monday will be addressing mostly financial issues, bilateral trade, Mercosur-European Union negotiations and the British position both in the G-7 group and in the coming crucial third review of the IMF-Argentina agreement next March.

Apparently the President Kirchner administration was somewhat surprised by the strong British stance in the recent G-7 Finance ministers meeting in Florida and during the consideration of the second IMF review by the Executive Board when the UK delegate together with Japan and Italy abstained, in spite of IMF Executive Director Horst Koehler recommendation.

Finally a decisive United States support saved the day for Argentina but the coming March review is still uncertain because now even the US Secretary of the Treasury John Snow is demanding a more "constructive" attitude of Argentina towards the sovereign defaulted bondholders to whom the Argentine government has proposed a 75% face value cut.

Meantime in Stanley the Court and Council Chamber this Monday will witness the opening ceremony of a week long of discussions of the regional conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association that convenes mostly small countries and for the first time ever, a major political event, will be hosted by the Islands elected Councillors.

"The Falkland Islands Branch of the CPA hope that, besides the business of the Conference, delegates will gain a good understanding of the Islands, including environmental, internal and foreign policy issues. It is also hoped that all the delegates will find their visit a valuable, interesting and enjoyable experience", said a spokesperson from Gilbert House.

During the week there will be five workshops for which subjects have been proposed from around the Region:

? the ability of small countries and overseas territories to defend themselves and safeguard their status and independence; ? educational issues relating to small countries; ? tourism and world security; ? environmental concerns versus commercial development; and ? how to restore trust between the public and politicians and how to convince the public that good public services in a community are the result of good government.

On Tuesday Mr. Rammell and Argentine Foreign Secretary Rafael Bielsa are scheduled to talk about the charter flights to the Falklands, which this season Argentina limited to just three, from an original request of twenty, imperilling the scheduled cruise passenger turnover and the future development of the Islands tourist industry.

The Argentine position is that since 2001 the British have been told that it's time to sit and talk about regular flights from the Argentine mainland to the Islands, "after all 22 years have elapsed since the conflict and in spite of Argentina's institutional maturity, nothing seems to have changed".

However Mr. Rammell before leaving for South America was quoted by the BBC saying that "we have been trying to build on existing arrangements for airlinks between the Falkland Islands and South America and we have made clear that any future arrangements (with Argentina) have got to be acceptable to the Falkland Islanders and also that any discussions need to take place against the backdrop of the charter flights being resumed".

And Falklands Deputy Governor Harriet Hall, quoted by MercoPress last week said that "we would discuss generally the future of extra air links between the Falklands and the continent of South America, but it would be up to Councillors whether that was with Argentina or with any other Country", further adding that "there's absolutely no suggestion that we will make concessions (to Buenos Aires) in order to get the charter flights back".