MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina will have an ambassador in London next year, says Cristina Fernandez

CFK made the announcement during an end of the year toast with the media

“Very soon we are going to have an ambassador in the United Kingdom” announced Argentine president Cristina Fernandez. The post has remained vacant since 2008 and the announcement comes in the midst of a new round of the ongoing dispute with the UK over the Falklands and other South Atlantic Islands sovereignty.

The announcement comes a day after Mercosur members announced that they will bar all Falklands flagged vessels from their ports, following on what was seen as an initiative from the Uruguayan president Jose Mujica, who made public his intention ahead of the Mercosur summit that took place in Montevideo.

Late Wednesday at the end of a day’s job President Cristina Fernandez invited the journalists covering Government House for a New Year toast and chatting informally made the statement, although she did not reveal further details.

“Very soon we are going to have an ambassador in the United Kingdom, because thirty years, next year, is a long time”, said the Argentine president, thus confirming that on the thirtieth anniversary of the Falklands’ conflict, Argentina will have an ambassador in London.

“Oh please don’t insist” said Cristina Fernandez with a smile when she was asked about the name of the candidate.

Actually the incident happened when the president was underlining the significance of the Mercosur declaration in support of Argentina barring all Falklands’ flagged vessels from the region’s port and admitted she was aware the Foreign Office had called Mercosur ambassadors for consultations on the issue.

“But not from Argentina, because we don’t have one”, said Carlos Zanini the Legal and Technical Advisor of the Argentine Executive.

“We don’t have, but we are going to have” replied Cristina Fernandez.

The last Argentine ambassador in London was Federico Mirré a career diplomat who as a young man visited the Falklands, and who was named by Nestor Kirchner in 2003 but retired in 2008. Since then the post has remained vacant to protest the UK’s negative to discuss with Argentina the Falklands’ sovereignty.

However last year CFK proposed sending as ambassador to London the former Culture minister Jose Nun. The opposition objected saying the quota for political ambassadors was more than full and simultaneously the bilateral relation again erupted with the start of the current oil exploration round in Falklands’ waters based on licences awarded by the local government.