MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Storm over the South Atlantic

The following article was published in today's Buenos Aires Herald by Michael Soltys.

Book launch “Argentina-Britain, Bilateral Agreements 1823-2002”

Last Tuesday Rosendo Fraga's book (his 37th!) Argentina-Gran Bretaña, Acuerdos Bilaterales, 1823-2002 (Argentina-Britain, Bilateral Agreements, 1823-2002) was launched on the premises of CARI (the Argentine Council of International Relations) at an event where some frank, if diplomatic remarks by British Ambassador Sir Robin Christopher led to coverage in next day's press (Including the Herald). The intention of this piece is to cover the book launch as a whole beyond the news flash.

Fraga modestly gave the briefest of introductions to his own work, pointing out that it began with the British recognition of the Argentine independence in 1823, the first commercial treaty in 1825 (culture would have to wait over 130 years until the time of Arturo Frondizi) and the settlement of Uruguay's future in 1827, continuing in subsequent decades through both the rough and the smooth - Juan Manuel de Rosas, Juan Domingo Peron and even the 1982 conflict (which Fraga called "the last clean war" in history).

In a word, it is all there - in fact, "simply too much," Sir Robin said at the outset of his speech. Defining a diplomat's task as giving life and spirit to the letter of agreements, Sir Robin soon left it quite clear that while Fraga's book might start with George Canning's support for Argentine independence in 1823, he had no intention of stopping at 2002. Praising a rich shared commercial history (and, -perhaps even more important than the investment channels- the personal links thus created), Sir Robin singled out the South Atlantic as the one area where "the letter was there but the spirit was perhaps lacking".

That spirit was present in the agreement of July 14, 1999, which included the construction of a permanent monument on the islands to the fallen. Five years later that monument now stands thanks to the "spirit of reconciliation" between the Committee of the Relatives headed by Héctor Cisneros (who was present at CARI that Tuesday night and who was named by Christopher) and the islanders who "generously" agreed to the monument without Argentina abandoning its sovereignty claim.

Although Sir Robin's name figures in the last four agreements in Fraga's book, he concluded bitterly that in the twilight of his diplomatic career "it is becoming increasingly clear that in my remaining time here, there will be no new treaty to add to this collection?In recent times the letter and the spirit have moved apart".

Yet this sense of frustration did not prevent Sir Robin from looking ahead for areas of possible progress, perhaps even within the context of Mercosur and the European Union (although where the South Atlantic was concerned, the responsibility was necessarily bilateral, he said). One such area was charter flights, also part of the 1999 agreement ? here Sir Robin described an agreement as "possible?with the right focus." Landmine removal and fisheries conservation were other areas making for common ground.

The third speaker, ex-diplomat Carlos Ortiz de Rozas, singled out two periods with a highly personal significance: the 1845-7 Anglo French blockade against his ancestor Rosas and the 1971-4 détente when he was a diplomat in London and when amid intensified mainland links (including hospital care) concepts like shared sovereignty and leaseback were in the air. On this basis and others Ortiz de Rozas described Anglo-Argentine relations as "sweet and sour", also insisting that no outsiders understand Argentina as well as the English.