MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina Repudiates Joint Declaration over Oil
The Argentine Foreign Ministry earlier this year announced the repudiation of the Joint Declaration over Oil signed with Britain on September 27, 1995. Its repudiation communiqué states that this was caused by an “abusive interpretation” by Britain of the area to which the 1995 Agreement should apply, and that on the basis on this “abusive interpretation” the British had launched a “unilateral” licensing round shortly after this was signed. The facts are very different.
The 1995 agreement was accompanied by joint declarations, each stating the full claim by each side to all the territory involved. The agreement itself was vaguely worded too – it had to be, to get any agreement at all. But there is no doubt about the meaning put on the agreement at the time it was signed. It was to allow Falklands' oil exploration to go ahead inside Falklands' waters, as defined by the fishing zones - effectively with Argentina's consent, and without interference or government involvement by them. An area straddling the borders of Falklands and Argentine waters was designated to be exploited jointly, although, Argentina subsequently showed no interest in this. But its existence proves that oil development inside Falklands' waters was intended to be by the Falklands alone. If it had been otherwise, there would have been no need for such a joint area at all. The Argentine Government that signed the Oil agreement also knew very well that a licensing round would follow immediately after it. Proof of this is that in conjunction with British Gas the former Argentine state oil company Yacimientos Petroliferous Fiscales(YPF) took part in the bidding round in 1996. Their bid was considered sub-standard but, anxious to have them onboard, the Foreign Office twice gave them warnings about this. Their bid was not improved sufficiently and, as a result, failed to get a license. Argentina would probably have been quite satisfied with the 1995 agreement, if YPF had succeeded in getting licenses. Lastly, when the successful licensees began drilling in 1998, there was no interference from the Argentine Government that had signed the Oil Agreement. They knew that it did effectively authorize this. Shell, which was a licensee and so took part in the drilling program operated in Argentina too. It did not receive any harassment over its involvement in this. The Argentine repudiation communiqué comes with two pieces of rhetoric peculiar to the present Argentine Government. They are now referring to the 1995 agreement, like other agreements made since the Falklands War, as "provisional" agreements. This is nonsense. These agreements are no more provisional than any other diplomatic agreement. Their texts in no way suggest this. Argentina is just saying that they are "provisional" to pretend that they are somehow intended to lead up to a settlement of the Falklands dispute. Also, there is the usual complaint of "unilateral" British action, when such action over oil was effectively authorized by the 1995 agreement. Argentina's repudiation communiqué ended with the message that it is not averse to cooperation in practical matters in the South-West Atlantic, under the safeguards of the sovereignty umbrella, but only if this contributes towards creating the conditions for a re-establishment of discussions to solve the Falklands dispute. Argentina has also been campaigning for such negotiations in international forums too. These are, of course, out of the question, as the British Government has made clear, unless Islanders want this. But Argentina has now added another major impediment even to the possibility of such negotiations. The first such impediment was the introduction, in 1994, into the Argentine Constitution, of a claim to the exercise of 100% of sovereignty over the Falklands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. This was really just a red herring to sweeten the changes that President Menem wanted in the Constitution then to enable him to stand for a second term of office. But this means that any negotiations over sovereignty must end in a total hand over of all British territory in the South Atlantic. Nothing less can satisfy the Argentine constitution. As the Newsletter headline said at the time, it is a question of "All or Nothing for Argentina". Such a hand over is not going to happen. But, if it were even to be thought about, common sense would dictate that such a capitulation by Britain would have to be done in stages - based on agreements. But now we know that a subsequent Argentine government might just tear up any such agreement. It is impossible to deal with countries that behave like this. By Robert Jones - Falklands Newsletter
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