MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner in UN calls for Falklands' sovereignty talks

Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, speaking before United Nations, called on the British government for a quick resumption of negotiations leading to a solution for the Malvinas Islands disputed sovereignty, which he described as “a central issue for the Argentine people”.

Addressing on Wednesday a Millennium goals assessment meeting in the framework of the United Nations General Assembly, President Kirchner dedicated several paragraphs to the Argentine claim over the Falkland Islands, as he did in the previous presentations of 2003 and 2004, and in all international forums, which has become the official Malvinas policy of the current administration.

Last July and responding to Argentina, the Decolonization Committee (C 24) again called on both sides to resume sovereignty negotiations suspended since the 1982 conflict, and also rejected the incorporation of the Islands as an Overseas Territory in the European Constitution, "a situation which was particularly annoying for Argentina", reports the Buenos Aires press.

President Kirchner reiterated before United Nations the Argentine government's commitment to dialogue and "permanent willingness to reach a fair, peaceful and lasting solution for the sovereignty dispute in the Islands, which is a central issue for the Argentine people".

"We exhort the United Kingdom to a quick compliance with the international community's call to resume negotiations", underlined President Kirchner on closing his speech and after having enumerated the Decolonization Committee's statements in favour of a solution.

"Numerous resolutions from this General Assembly and the Decolonization Committee have stated that the question of the Islas Malvinas, Georgias and South Sandwich constitute a special colonial situation that must be solved through bilateral negotiations between my country and the United Kingdom", highlighted President Kirchner, who according to the Argentine press, did not fully keep to the speech copy released beforehand.