MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK praises Argentine partnership and reiterates Falklands’ self determination

Minister of State Foreign and Commonwealth Office Lord Howell

The UK has a close and productive relationship with Argentina but “we will not discuss the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands with Argentina unless the Falkland Islanders so wish”, said Minister of State Foreign and Commonwealth Office Lord Howell of Guilford during a question period in the House of Lords.

“We regard Argentina as an important partner. We have a close and productive relationship on a range of bilateral and multilateral issues, but we will not discuss the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands with Argentina unless the Falkland Islanders so wish. UK is not a member of the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, but we regularly make clear within the UN our support for the right to self-determination of the Falkland Islanders”, underlined Lord Howell on Monday.

However in replying a question from Lord Brett (Labour) the Minister of State admitted it is very hard dealing with Argentina when all the time the counterpropositions and withdrawal of cooperation occurs.

“I mentioned the difficulty of getting co-operation, which we certainly have on offer, over the two items (fisheries and oil) that the noble Lord mentions. But on other things we are engaged. We are dealing with Argentina as an important country, which, incidentally, is a very beautiful country and is, potentially, a country of great wealth and prosperity. We are dealing with it on science, mining, education and energy. This is a very positive agenda, which we welcome. But on these difficult issues involving the Falkland Islands, we have seen the non-co-operation which we deplore and we would like to see it replaced by active co-operation”.

Further on Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan (Labour), asked if nearly 30 years after the cessation of hostilities (1982 conflict) the role of the British government should not be to try to achieve a decree of reconciliation between “the megaphone diplomacy of the Kirchner Government and the obduracy of many of the Islands' elected councillors, who do not seem to realise that they live in a world in which their nearest neighbour could be a friend rather than a source of hostility?”

Again Lord Howell said that except for the question of the Falkland Islands right to self determination, “we wish to establish better relations with Argentina, but it is very hard if all the time the counterpropositions and withdrawal of co-operation we have described occur”.

He added that the UN decolonization committee “is rather outdated and full of language about colonies British imperialism and so on. We have moved far away from that because the Falkland Islands is a self-governing overseas territory under the British Crown and that is what it remains”.

However when Baroness Falkner (Liberal Democrat) asked why twelve Commonwealth countries supported the Argentines in the UN committee, Lord Howell “it is always a pity when there is not full agreement, particularly among our fellow Commonwealth members with whom we operate closely on many issues. But they have their point of view, to which they are perfectly entitled. The debate goes on, but it is not a binding debate as no binding resolutions are involved. I expect that the debate will continue, particularly among not so much Commonwealth countries but other Latin American countries”.

Finally on a question from Lord Anderson of Swansea (Labour) about US support to the UK respect of the Falklands, Lord Howell said the US position has not changed: the US recognises the UK’s administration of the Falkland Islands. We are in regular touch with the US on this issue, as on many other issues. We expect that dialogue to continue”.