MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

‘Why support Argentina financially when the country threatens Falklands?’

UK is also a major shareholder of the World Bank

Why should the UK support Argentina financially when the country is acting against British interests particularly in issues such as the Falkland Islands, asks an article in the Mail-online.

“In recent months, the Argentine government has started saber rattling again, and last week the British delegation at the United Nations was forced to issue a statement reaffirming the right of the Falkland Islands people to self-determination”, says the article by Matthew Elliot.

The Foreign Office statement cited the democratically elected representatives of the Falkland Islands who “lamented the measures adopted by the Republic of Argentina that unlawfully aim to limit both their transport links and their access to open and free trade”.

“So why are we supporting Argentina financially?”

The piece recalls that the UK as well as the US are major shareholders guaranteeing the finances of the World Bank. And “Argentina owes the bank 5 billion dollars and new programs are regularly being approved, like a 320 million dollars project earlier this year in the Province of La Rioja”.

Further on the piece says that US authorities as a matter of principle vote against any new lending to Argentina, “as it falls squarely within the ranks of middle-income countries and hasn’t treated its creditors fairly despite having over 50 billion dollars in reserves”.

“British authorities should do likewise, and vote no to further programs at any opportunity we get” proposes Mail-online.

Likewise the European Union is running a €65 million aid program for Argentina between 2007 and 2013 and the UK current share is nearly £7 million.

The article points out that Argentina is but another example of an extended phenomenon of ill-invested foreign aid in countries that have sufficient financing, attempt to murder dissidents or promoting terrorists or radicalizing children through anti-Semitic textbooks and television programs.

Finally the proposal is to freeze the aid budget, focus it on the countries that really need and deserve it, and save £3.7 billion a year for taxpayers by 2014-15, which works up to £ 140 a year for every family in the UK.