MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina alleges Falklands is under ‘military occupation’ with more soldiers than civilians

Ambassador Argüello: “never before has Latin America and the Caribbean been so united in defence of the territorial integrity of the region”

Falklands-Malvinas is “under military occupation” and the military base “has more soldiers than the British civilian population occupying the Islands”, said Argentine ambassador before the United Nations Jorge Argüello during a conference at China’s International Studies Foundation.

“The Malvinas Islands is 400 kilometres offshore Argentine territory and 14.000 kilometres from London”, said Argúello, emphasizing that “the military base (MPA) has more soldiers than the total British civilian population occupying the Islands”.

However in his conference on “Malvinas and the South Atlantic situation” ambassador Argüello said “Argentina is working on all international forums to diminish Britain’s resistance margin to abide by the UN General Assembly resolutions” on the Falklands/Malvinas dispute.

At the conference Argüello in the name of the Argentine government and people, thanked the People’s Republic of China for its standing support to the Argentine position in the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas Islands.

Further on the Argentine diplomat said the XIX century will be the ‘century of the natural resources dispute’ and this helps to explain the “British contumacy and its negative position to any kind of negotiations. Fisheries and oil have much to do with this conflict”.

But in spite of British point blank rejection, “never before has Latin America and the Caribbean been so united in defence of the territorial integrity of the region”.

Ambassador Argüello’s conference belongs to the round of international talks promoted by Argentine diplomacy and titled “You need two for Tango”.

The Chinese International Studies Foundation is a think-tank with contributions from diplomats, former ambassadors and academics from different Chinese organizations linked to international politics. The main offices are in Beijing and the organization has ten chapters, one of them dedicated to Latin America.

Among officials present at the conference, according to Argentine sources, was the chairman of the international Studies Foundation and Director of China’s Strategic Studies Institute, Wu Changsheng; the head of the Foundation’s Latin American chapter, Wang Zhen; former Deputy Foreign Affairs minister and president of the institute, Liu Guchang, former ambassador before Argentina, Cuba and Ecuador, Yicong Xu, plus Chinese diplomats and academics linked to Latin American studies.

Ambassador Argüello and his “Two for Tango” round this year have already been to international affairs think-tanks in Thailand, India and Havana and according to the activities calendar next stops are Korea, Japan, Panama and Mexico.

Last year Argüello lectured on the ‘Malvinas issue’ in Berlin and in the US Columbia University and New School University.