MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina’s Malvinas claim with no support statement from hemisphere defence ministers

Uruguay’s Menendez said that remnants from the Cold War will have to be changed

A preparatory meeting for a Ministers of Defence of the Americas Conference to be held in the second half of the year concluded in Montevideo with no inclusion of the Malvinas Islands dispute in the final declaration because of lack of agreement among the participants.

Deputy Defence Secretary Jorge Menendez from Uruguay, which will be hosting the X conference next October, made the announcement saying the issues addressed were related to major nature disasters, drugs trade and the new criteria on security and defence given the changing threats and challenges worldwide.

The Malvinas issue, and the Argentine sovereignty claim with support of most South American countries was left out of the final statement in spite of having been addressed in several meetings, because “some countries opposed the initiative”, revealed Deputy Secretary Menendez.

“It was not a consensus issue regarding its consideration and inclusion in the final declaration. The fact it was addressed and discussed was limited to the minutes of the meeting, but not in the final declaration”, added Menendez.

Nevertheless there was a great number of South American countries that coincided with Uruguay position which is “full support for Argentina’s claim over the Malvinas and other South Atlantic Islands and condemnation of colonialism in the continent”.

Other issues at the preparatory meeting included collaboration with UN peace keeping missions and the current number of instruments related to defence issues existent in the Americas and the Organization of American States.

Menendez said that some of these instruments such as the Inter American Defence Board and the Inter American reciprocal assistance treaty, TIAR, will have to be reviewed since “we have the right to ask what their purpose is, because they failed to be implemented when needed”

“They are mechanisms dating back to the Cold War, in a context in which the conditions of those days are no longer with us”, he added.

Menendez said that the two days of deliberations helped find positions “relative to a shared line to deal with more efficiency defence issues” adding that Unasur member countries have “positions already worked out in common while Central and North Americans have criteria quite different in several

The Xth ministerial conference next October will count with the attendance of representatives from 34 countries and is the most important hemispheric forum on defence issues since 1995.

The previous conference was in 2010 in Bolivia.