MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mrs. Kirchner does not challenge Cameron on Falklands; ‘issue belongs to UN’

Mrs. Kirchner and PM David Cameron

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner met with PM David Cameron in the framework of G-20 events in Toronto, Canada, but avoided talking about the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute, according to Argentine media sources.

“We’re going to talk about things at the right place where they must be addressed. And the natural environment for Malvinas negotiations is the United Nations” said Mrs. Kirchner during a Sunday press conference for Argentine journalists sent to cover the Toronto G-20 summit.

Mrs Kirchner revealed that during the long discussion Saturday night with PM Cameron at the Faymont Hotel we “exclusively” addressed issues related to the G-20 summit and problems of several Euro-zone countries, overwhelmed by their huge sovereign debt and budget deficits, ‘virtually out of control’.

The statement from Mrs. Kirchner could be signalling a new approach to the Falklands/Malvinas dispute since, even against protocol, both Mrs. Kirchner and her predecessor and husband Nestor Kirchner made use of all possible opportunities to bring up the issue with British Prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Anticipating such an approach the British press quoting government sources said that PM Cameron would starkly turn down any fresh request from President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner for talks on the issue.

PM Cameron was expected to make his point to Mrs. Kirchner either during an official leaders' dinner at the Toronto summit or at some point in the “margins” of official discussions on Sunday.

A source close to Mr Cameron said: “He will be robust. He will make the point again that our position on the sovereignty of the Falklands has not changed and will not change.”

Tensions have risen since Rockhopper, a British oil exploration company, announced the discovery of oil in Falkland Island waters - although they did not say that commercial quantities were present.

British sources say Argentina has used the find as a pretext to “revisit the sovereignty issue”. Last week a United Nations committee passed a non-binding resolution calling for the two countries to restart talks.

Since taking office the British coalition government has repeatedly stated that there would be no talks so long as Islanders said they wanted to remain British following on the United Nations people’s principle of “self determination” enshrined in the organization’s charter.