MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Defence minister Puricelli: Argentina’s Malvinas sovereignty claim is a regional commitment
Argentine Defence minister Arturo Puricelli Argentine Defence minister Arturo Puricelli said that in the same way “the independence of the Argentines is the independence of the region”, the defence of Argentina is also the defence of the region and in this framework of integration Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Malvinas Islands is a regional commitment.
In his Independence Day (Monday July 9) message to the Armed Forces, Puricelli underlined the “advances in regional integration, the constitution of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, Defence Council and the decision to establish the region as a zone of peace”.
“We’ve given great strides in the conviction that today the independence of the Argentines is also the independence of the region” just like our heroes at the beginning of the XIX century.
“We’ve also created the Centre for Strategic Studies on Defence that will help build a regional line of thinking adequate to our defence necessities” said the minister who also underlined the confidence building measures adopted in the region among Unasur members.
The measures include “the exchange of information relative to the defence systems of each country; on the number of troops and equipment; cooperation accords with countries from inside and outside the region and on defence expenditure”.
“We must also underline the commitment from our Unasur brother-countries in support of Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands” which is part of the achievements in those pages of history and that”we have been chosen to write in the book of national independence”.
Likewise Puricelli mentioned the National Defence System integral modernization project which has completed the “planning cycle” capacities which will enable to elaborate the design and deployment of a military instrument apt for times ahead of us”.
The minister underlined the efforts to recover the technological and scientific capacity for Argentine Defence supported in the strong context of the implementation of a national policy for industrial development.
Puricelli mentioned as examples of this policy the recovery of the Naval Industrial Complex which includes the shipyards of Tandanor and Almirante Storni where the repairs of the submarine ARA San Juan and the icebreaker Almirante Irazar are very advanced. He then mentioned the manufacturing of radars in Rio Negro and the Military Factories.
The Argentine minister spent last week on an official visit to China where he met with his counterpart Liang Guanglie and signed several agreements on defence and military cooperation.
Puricelli was also invited to visit China’s main naval base in Shanghai where he underlined the new strategic relation between China and Argentina.
With the head of the Chinese Navy, Admiral Wu Shengli, Puricelli said Argentina was interested in exploring technological assistance to replace the country’s naval equipment which “is still mostly of British origin”.
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Read all commentsMore empty words from Mr emptyhead!
Jul 10th, 2012 - 06:14 am 0Argentina is bankrupt and can't afford to get within a 10th of British military power, in fact it can't even afford to re-arm its entirely obsolete military.
As for measuring British forces strength on the islands, its pure fantasy to think that SA countries can measure the forces of the UK in the area given the UK's ability to move personnel and equipment in secret whenever it wishes too, not that the rest of SA cares one bit. Argentina is kidding itself if it thinks other SA countries care past a few token words that come to exactly zero.
When are the Argies going to get real about the Falklands. They say they want want to replace their British and other western naval equipment with Chinese equipment.They have moved on from their links with Britain yet they cannot move on from their mid 20th century nazi fascist Peronism and they will not recognise that the Falklands,Britain and the world has moved on from the 20th century.
Jul 10th, 2012 - 06:20 am 0The Falklands does not want anything to do with Argentina and Britain has woken up to Argentina's weird nutty obsessions ;especially under this 'birdbrain' president (to quote Michael Buerk).
In other words, we can't take the Falklands by force, so if we play nice to our neighbours and suck up to China, maybe they'll invade them for us.
Jul 10th, 2012 - 06:20 am 0Pathetic really.
Next year tha Falkland Islanders will hold a UN observed referendum, which will show the world what the islanders want. Therefore any invasion attempt by Argentina's 'allies' would be completely illegal and could see the UK invoke article 5 of the NATO charter. This means that Argentina's allies would be facing all NATO countries, not just Britain.
But back to actual reality. Why would any country fight Argentina's wars for them, especially when they would gain nothing from it? With what is Argentina going to buy all this new 'military' hardware, as the country is all but broke, and the Chinese only accept Gold or Dollars?
Once again Argentina is showing the world that it lives in a little fantasy world of its own far away from actual reality.
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