MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands a “bilateral issue between Argentina and UK”, insists Washington

Arturo Valenzuela, US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs

The Falkland Islands and the political figure of President Barak Obama were among the issues addressed by United States Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela during a Friday mid day press conference in anticipation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to five countries of the region.

Ms Clinton is scheduled to meet next Monday afternoon in Montevideo with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner on the sidelines of the inauguration of Uruguayan president Jose Mujica.

This week the Argentine president was particularly critical of Obama’s fist year in office for “not having fulfilled the region’s expectations”.

According to Argentine diplomatic sources during the Monday meeting Mrs. Kirchner is also expected to bring up the Falklands sovereignty dispute with the UK and the current oil drilling round by British companies for which Argentina reaffirmed its support from all Latinamerican and Caribbean countries at a summit held in Mexico earlier in the week.

From Mexico Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana travelled to New York to meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to request UK complies with UN resolutions and re-opens sovereignty talks on the Falklands.

However confirming State Department policy, Valenzuela said that “we will not be discussing the Falklands issue with Argentina. This is a matter for Argentina and for Britain. And it’s not a matter for the United States to make a judgment on”.
As to President Cristina Kirchner’s assertion that President Obama “had not fulfilled” the region’s expectations during his first year in office when “we were hoping to see strong realism, real-politik, from the White House”, Valenzuela refereed to the popularity standing of the US president in Latinamerica.

“In the last year there has been an enormous appreciation in the Americas of the president and his performance”. In most Latinamerican countries president Obama has “different degrees of popularity” which reflect “the enormous acknowledgement of his figure as a leader and of his vision of the world”, said Valenzuela.

Everybody is entitled to have an opinion on US foreign policy “but we simply disagree; we think that not only have we had a very significant engagement over the past year with countries in the hemisphere while at the same time having to focus on two very difficult and significant crises, the first being, of course, the Honduran coup d’etat that took place last June and then also the more recent earthquake in Haiti”, said Valenzuela.
He added that with Argentina Ms Clinton will not only be discussing bilateral issues but also some of the international issues. “The Argentines have been fairly outspoken on issues like Iran and international terrorism”.

Finally Valenzuela stressed that “there are a whole host of things that we’re doing on a (constructive) bilateral basis with the Argentines. There is very, very good cooperation on law enforcement issues and at the same time, we’ve been pleased at the votes that the Argentines have taken in the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran”, and the Argentine position on international terrorism “has been a very good one”.
“We share very many things with the Argentines, and we would very much like to be able to strengthen our relationship with Argentina as we move forward”.
Ms Clinton (including Valenzuela in the delegation) from Uruguay travels to Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica and Guatemala.