MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina considers ignoring Falklands' oil agreement
Malvinas claim DVD for all foreign tourist

Hydrocarbons exploration in the Malvinas basin figures as the main agenda issue of the standing Parliamentary Observatory committee which will be officially inaugurated next Thursday in Argentina's Congress.

According to Argentine press reports Malvinas experts, academics, politicians, former government officials, the commanders of the three Armed Forces services plus top representatives from the Foreign Affairs Ministry will be present at the Thursday ceremony headed by the president of the Lower House Deputy Alberto Balestrini.

The Observatory which will be made up evenly of current Congress members and respected Malvinas old hands will keep track of all Malvinas events, significant calendar dates and strongly lobby before other Parliaments and governments, Argentina's long standing claim over the Falkland Islands.

The group's activities and "Malvinization" promotion are in line with the President Kirchner administration recent announcement promising a stronger position vis-à-vis United Kingdom regarding the Falklands dispute that could even include dismantling the "sovereignty umbrella", under which the current links have prospered.

However the first issue to be addressed is oil and gas in the South Atlantic, particularly focusing on the never formalized joint British-Argentine oil exploration in the shared overlapping area to the west of the Falkland Islands.

Buenos Aires press reports point out that the issue has become paramount since the recent trip of President Kirchner to Spain where it was agreed Repsol-YPF would advance its investment timetable in Argentina, specifically operating off-shore the South Atlantic in combination with Argentina's new government owned energy consortium, Enarsa.

The sum to be invested in deep sea exploration in the two basins, San Jorge Gulf and Malvinas is in the range of two billion US dollars.

The first task of the Observatory will then be to harmonize an all parties political, academic, diplomatic national consensus leading to the disavowing of the hydrocarbons agreement with the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic.

Apparently the Argentine Congress is considering a bill with generous benefits and incentives for companies interested in undertaking operations in the South Atlantic and besides Repsol-YPF, Brazil's Petrobras and Venezuela's PDVSA have been attracted.

With Spain, Brazil and Venezuela as the strong players in the area, "the politicians and academics to sit in the Observatory will have to analyze how to dismantle the UK-Argentina 1995 hydrocarbons agreement that created a joint exploitation area to the west of the Malvinas, which never really got started", reports the Buenos Aires press.

Furthermore in mid 1998 the Alianza, (a coalition of anti President Menem groupings which won the presidential election with Fernando De la Rúa in 1999) signed a declaration anticipating they would declare "invalid" the 1995 oil agreement signed by then Foreign Affairs minister Guido Di Tella, if they ever reached government.

The basic argument was that the agreement didn't have the sufficient legal sustainability to force Argentina to comply. But in spite of winning the Alianza never impugned the agreement. However, many of the original Alianza members are currently President Kirchner allies.

Among those invited for Thursday's ceremony are the acting Foreign Affairs minister Roberto Garcia Moritan (Jorge Taiana is overseas); the head of the Malvinas Department Ambassador Eduardo Airaldi; Lucio Garcia del Solar, Hipolito Solari Irigoyen, former deputies Fernando Maurette and Marcelo Stubrin; former officials Dante Caputto, Fernando Petrella, Anibal Jozami and Hector Cisneros from the Malvinas Veterans association.

One who has not been invited is Andres Cisneros, former Deputy Foreign Affairs minister with Guido Di Tella who forecasted that the Kirchner administration Falklands' policy will attempt to disavow all bilateral agreements (fisheries and oil) reached in the late eighties and early nineties, and "concentrate in the claims before United Nations".

Mr Cisneros added that the "legal claim is fine, and must be continued because what has been achieved is insufficient", but also cautioned that all Argentine governments have honoured the agreements reached.

Malvinas claim DVD for all foreign tourists

A DVD with information on Argentina's Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty claim will be delivered to all tourists arriving in the country, announced Tuesday the president of the Lower House Deputy Jorge Argüello.

"Every foreign visitor arriving in Argentina will be given a DVD with Argentina's claim to the Islands, and all diplomatic and political missions travelling overseas will also be taking the message", he added.

The initiative is in the framework of the Argentine Congress drive to launch next Thursday the Parliament Observatory on the Islands issue, which is "in harmony with the State policy to claim the Malvinas islands".

"The Observatory will be an all party institute with a significant academic component", indicated Argüello.

"The purpose of the Observatory is to promote seminars, teachings and publications on the Malvinas issue, and our legitimate sovereignty claims".

The Argentine Cinema Institute will be involved in the editing of the DVD.