MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bielsa: “we're waiting for a gesture from the English”.

Argentina will not try “to seduce” the “kelpers in Malvinas” again, nor will it continue pushing, for the time being, for the resumption of flights to the Falkland Islands from Argentine territory, Argentine Foreign Affairs Secretary Rafael Bielsa told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lower House last Wednesday.

"We will continue to claim Argentine sovereignty over the Falklands. Next June 6 once again we will be stating our claim before the United Nations Decolonization Committee (G 24). The Kirchner administration does not agree with the seduction policy of recent years", underlined Mr. Bielsa during a gruelling session where he was questioned about human rights in Cuba, the energy crisis, Chile and Bolivia, and Malvinas among other issues, reports Buenos Aires daily Ambito Financiero.

When criticized for the squid policy of the government, described by several Deputies as "a complete failure; squid has disappeared as a resource", Mr. Bielsa replied the squid was there but had gone further south "because of a strong warm current", and insisted "foreign vessels have not pillaged squid".

Regarding the resumption of flights to the Falklands from Argentina, Mr. Bielsa indicated that there were talks with Great Britain, but the "newspaper Ambito Financiero had leaked the existence of a first understanding. The British were irritated with what was published and suspended the talks. We now have no intention of resuming talks and we are waiting for a gesture from the English", reports Ambito Financiero apparently directly involved in the failed talks incident.

Ambito Financiero writes that several Deputies of the Committee smiled when they heard the "witty" reply of Mr. Bielsa trying to explain the collapse of talks with the UK.

As to the energy crisis and the reduction of natural gas provision to Chile, Mr. Bielsa announced he would be travelling to Chile, "when President Kirchner let's me go", and admitted the complexity of relations with Chile.

"It's not only natural gas, we have some aspects of the Continental Ice (border differences) to consider, and the Chileans have complained about President Kirchner's solidarity with Bolivia's claim to have access to the sea", revealed Mr. Bielsa who criticized the way the Chilean press was addressing the gas issue.

Gas and Bolivia showed Mr. Bielsa was a bit out of touch with what was going on, reports Ambito Financiero. When questioned about an alleged "official/unofficial" picketers' leader trip to Bolivia to talk about a possible gas supply to Argentina, Mr. Bielsa admitted he had read about it in the press.

"What I can say is that officials from the Chancellery are in negotiations with the Bolivians. As to Luis D'Elía's trip (picketers' leader), I found out about it reading the newspaper".

Apparently Mr. D'Elía was sent to talk with a strong Bolivian Socialist leader who is against gas exports to Argentina fearing the supply might end helping Chile.