MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands Councillors “relaxed” over Rammell - Bielsa meetings
Mike Summers, this month's spokesperson for the eight elected members of the Falkland Islands Legislative Council said today (Tuesday) that he and his colleagues were taking a “relaxed” view of the meeting last week in Cartagena, Colombia, between Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for British Territories, Bill Rammell and Argentine Foreign Minister, Rafael Bielsa.
The meeting, which was reported by Argentine daily, Clarin, on Friday, was unplanned and took place, at the request of Bielsa, in what Mike Summers described as "the margins" of the G24 Conference, which is concerned with aid to Colombia.
Councillors were informed of the meeting on Saturday afternoon, after Government House, in Stanley had become aware of the Clarin article, Summers said. He added that he and his colleagues had been "irritated more than anything" that the first news of the meeting had come from the Argentine press, rather than from the British Foreign Office, however they had now been briefed by Falkland Islands Governor, Howard Pearce and were satisfied that there was "nothing sinister" involved.
According to the information received by councillors, Minister Rammel agreed to Foreign Minister Bielsa's request for a meeting on bilateral issues, on the understanding that if matters relating to the Falkland Islands were to be raised, sovereignty would not be on the agenda. Such a meeting, said Councillor Summers, was not unusual and not in itself a cause for alarm, describing Parliamentary Undersecretary of State at the Foreign Office, Rammell as "always very up-front in the past and very firm on sovereignty issues."
Summers said that he understood that charter flights to the Islands and high seas fish stocks were the principal topics talked about by the two ministers, but that there was "no defined outcome" from their discussions. This was later confirmed by Government House in Stanley.
John Fowler (MP) Stanley
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