MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Taiana in New York ready for UN G24 Falklands' debate

Argentina's Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana arrived Wednesday morning in New York where tomorrow he will be addressing the United Nations Decolonisation Committee claiming sovereignty over the disputed Falkland Islands and other South Atlantic islands.

According to the Buenos Aires press Mr Taiana held several meetings with the Argentine delegation in New York and in the afternoon was scheduled to hold interviews with several members of the G 24 or Decolonization Committee, before giving the final touch to Thursday "strong speech". Thursday G24 session (actually there are 27 members) will extend from 10 in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon, New York time. Following the presentation by Taiana and the Falkland Islands elected delegates, the Decolonization Committee is expected to approve a (non binding) consensus resolution calling for the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom to resume negotiations thus helping to find a "peaceful solution" to the controversy. As has been traditional during the session two Argentines testimonies will support Argentina's claim over the Islands. One of them is Marcelo Vernet, great-great-grandson of the last Argentine governor of the Islands Luis Vernet, and James Douglas Lewis born in the Falklands who resides in Santa Cruz and as a child was educated in an English school in Buenos Aires. "Both testimonies will help prove once again, the degree of insertion achieved by natives from the Malvinas and their descendents in the Argentine continental territory", underlined a release from the Argentine Foreign Affairs ministry. The Falkland Islands delegates who will be addressing G24 are elected Councilors Richard Davies and Ian Hansen.