MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina rejects UK protest and territorial pretensions over the Falklands

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Taiana currently in China, but always alert to Malvinas issues

Argentina officially rejected Monday the United Kingdom’s protest against a bill which includes as Argentine territory the Falklands/Malvinas islands and other insular territories in the South Atlantic, according to a release in Buenos Aires from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Argentina “rejects the British protest in all its terms, denies any British territorial pretension over the austral archipelagos and Antarctica, and reaffirms the legitimate sovereign rights of the Argentine Republic over the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich islands and adjoining maritime spaces, and over all of Argentine Antarctica”, reads the official communiqué.

The document is in response to the Foreign Office “verbal note” delivered to the Argentine chargé d’affairs in London.

The legislation at the heart of the controversy is Bill 26.552, sanctioned and promulgated last December by the Argentine Executive which defines territories belonging to the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands, and as in the “old national territory” includes the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich islands and Argentine Antarctica, some of which are in dispute with Great Britain..

The document was officially presented to Britain’s Chargé d’affairs at the Buenos Aires embassy.

Argentina points out that Bill 26.552 is the result of the joint effort of several Congressional committees and the corresponding desks of the Foreign Affairs ministry.

Argentina affirms Britain occupied the Falklands/Malvinas in 1833, and has since been claiming the Islands including by force in 1982 when a British Task force was sent to expel the Argentine invasion after 74 days occupation.

Britain rejected the new ruling, saying it has “no doubt” about its own sovereignty over the region.

The UK Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant said in a written statement to Parliament early January that: “the UK firmly rejects the enactment and promulgation, on December 9, of Argentine Law 26.552”.

Since January 2009 the Falklands have a new constitution which besides granting greater autonomy in internal affairs, in its first chapter enshrines the people of the Falklands right to self-determination.