MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina/UK defense cooperation talks next December

Next December Argentina and United Kingdom will resume talks on defense cooperation it was confirmed in Argentine government sources and the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, according to reports in the Buenos Aires press.

The defense cooperation talks date back to 1998 and were established with the purpose of confidence building among both countries forces in the South Atlantic.

Apparently this was one of the topics addressed informally by the higher echelon of the Argentine Navy and its Commander in Chief, Admiral Jorge Godoy with Royal Navy officers during the reception last Thursday on board Ice Patrol HMS Endurance which called in Buenos Aires.

The motive for the reception was the 201 anniversary of Admiral Nelson's Trafalgar victory 21 October 1805.

This was HMS Endurance's third visit this year to Argentina including one to the naval base or Puerto Belgrano for rudder repairs.

The Buenos Aires press also reports that last week in London Jorge Argüello, chairman of the Argentine Lower House Defense Committee met with British legislators to address among other issues the disputed Falklands/Malvinas islands.

The meeting was held in the House of Lords in the framework of the Argentine-British Parliamentary Multiparty Group.

Mr. Arguello who is also one of the founders of the Argentine Congress Malvinas Question Observatory, is quoted saying that the talks with British counterparts had been "very fruitful".

A delegation of UK MPSs and Lords recently visited Argentina to get in touch with the Malvinas question Observatory. At the time of their visit, the Argentine Senate passed a bill supposedly to combat illegal fishing but which discriminates against those companies operating in Falkland Islands fisheries if they wish to continue working in Argentina.