MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil denies, and will not accept, contacts with Falklands’ oil industry

The Brazilian government denied that the Falkland Islands “have been looking for business options in Brazil” specifically linked to hydrocarbons exploration, according to the head of the South American Desk at the Brazilian Foreign Affairs ministry.

According to press reports in Brasilia, Joao Luiz Pereira on Tuesday called officials from the Argentine embassy and emphatically denied any contact of Brazilian officials with any representative from the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly regarding possible oil deals.

Over the week end and in anticipation of Liberation Day in the Falklands (14 June 1982) the Buenos Aires correspondent of Folha de Sao Paulo interviewed on the phone LAM Glen Ross who is attributed the statements referred to ‘business options in Brazil’ regarding the current oil exploratory round in the Islands’ waters.

The news was immediately echoed by other Brazilian media and particularly the Argentine press.

The head of the South American Desk went further and said that in the event of such contacts and given the clear Brazilian support to Argentina regarding its legitimate sovereignty rights over the Malvinas Islands, “Brazil will not accept any kind of dialogue” in that field.

According to a release from the Argentine chancellery, during the recent OAS General Assembly held in Lima, Peru, it was Brazilian Deputy Foreign Affairs minister Antonio Patriota, who following an introduction from Argentina’s Jorge Taiana, read the declaration on the Malvinas Question, which was unanimously approved and acclaimed by the representatives from the 33 countries meeting in Lima.

At the Lima meeting Taiana claimed that the ‘new British adventure’ was in line with the colonial spirit that animates its presence in the south of the American continent, “searching at a distance of thousands of kilometres for the resources that are becoming scarce in its own area”.

Taiana also warned that the illegal activity of exploring for oil in Malvinas waters entails many risks for the region, not least environmental threats as can be witnessed in the Gulf of Mexico “which could not only affect Argentina but the whole region”.

Brazil’s support for Argentina’s sovereignty rights over the disputed Islands in the South Atlantic is more than confirmed by this latest position highlights the Argentine release.