MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Arab-South American support for Argentine Malvinas claim

Foreign ministers and envoys from South American and Arab countries meeting in Buenos Aires vowed Thursday to increase cooperation and trade, while pledging to bolster Middle East security.

As a special gesture to the host the final declaration called on Argentina and the United Kingdom to renew negotiations to find a "fair, peaceful and lasting solution" to the sovereignty dispute over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands". The issue was included in the Buenos Aires Declaration underlining that the inclusion of the Malvinas as a European Union overseas associate territory "is not compatible with the existence of a sovereignty dispute" over the Islands. During the closing press conference after the two days meeting Foreign Secretary Jorge Taiana said that that the renewed call for negotiations over the South Atlantic islands "is part of our standing policy of making known to the world community that the problem subsists". When making the statement during the press conference Taiana was next to Brazil's Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim, Saudi Arabia's Prince Saud Al-Faisal and the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa. Amr Moussa closed the two-day gathering in Argentina of more than 30 nations announcing the group's commitment to study ways to lower trade barriers. He said the countries, with a combined population of some 800 million people, represent "an enormous market with great possibilities." The meeting was a follow-up to a 2005 Brazil gathering to promote economic and social development. The countries agreed to new efforts to develop renewable energy sources, including bio-fuels, and joint ventures in mining and infrastructure. Envoys also expressed a desire to eliminate nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction across the volatile Middle East in the name of "regional stability and security." Taiana thanked his colleagues for their Malvinas dispute support since this is a "recognition sovereignty negotiations over those regions must resume". Taiana described the Malvinas situation as "colonial and archaic" and said that a similar call for the resumption of dialogue between Argentina and Great Britain was reiterated in the previous meeting of Arab and South American ministers and envoys in Brasilia in 2005 when a specific mention of Malvinas was done. Point 13 of the Buenos Aires Declaration specifically calls for the resumption of negotiations between Argentina and the United Kingdom to arrive as soon as possible to a fair, peaceful and lasting solution to the sovereignty dispute "to which refers the Islas Malvinas question". Furthermore the inclusion of the South Atlantic islands as European associate territories in the Annex II, Title IV of the "Association of Overseas Countries and Territories" pertaining to Part III of the treaty than amends the European Union Treaty and the European Community Constitutive Treaty "is not compatible with the existence of a sovereignty dispute over the Islands". Present at the meeting in Buenos Aires were ministers and envoys from Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Algiers, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Guyana, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Surinam, Tunis, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yemen plus the Secretary General of the Arab League.