MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argüello claims the UK is ‘stealing’ fisheries resources from Argentine Malvinas

‘Before having Falklands’ calamaris think twice’

Jorge Argüello, Argentina's permanent representative to the United Nations, accused the United Kingdom of stealing Argentine fisheries resources around the Falkland/Malvinas Islands.

Speaking to students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the diplomat said that “the world needs to understand that the British are illegally taking fish from our waters, and that they are after our oil and our minerals.”

Talking about the issue of food security, Argüello told the students that he believed that the 21st century would be the one for conflicts between Nations over the issue of natural resources and that the Falkland Islands were an example of this.

Argentina unilaterally withdrew from previous agreements with the UK over fishing and oil exploration, and has only been able to watch the Falkland Islands Government's successes within these areas, without gaining any benefit.

Argentina has been particularly irritated since the beginning of the current “unilateral” oil round which started in February last year and the recent announcement from Rockhopper Exploration of a significant commercial oil find.

The conference was organized by the Argentine ambassador in South Africa, Carlos Sersale and the Humanities Department from the university.

“The two British invasions to the River Plate (1806 and 1807) left from Cape Town, and now as then England is trying to ensure its position in the South Atlantic with the illegal occupation of the Malvinas Islands. Today as then the strategic reasons are based on the seizure of natural resources and the Antarctica projection from the Islands”, said Argüello.

“So now that you know what is behind a ‘Falklands’ calamari’ dish, think twice before ordering”, the Argentine ambassador told the students.

Argüello also claimed that the British in support of their strategic policy of taking over natural resources have a very costly military base (MPA) in the Malvinas, precisely in “the world’s region with the greatest bio-diversity, South America”.