MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas: Argentine lawmakers invited to deliver their position before the Irish parliament

Senator Daniel Filmus (R) and chair of the Foreign Affairs committee heads the Argentine delegation

A delegation of Argentine lawmakers headed by the presidents of the foreign affairs committees from the Senate, Daniel Filmus and Lower House, Guillermo Carmona are currently in Dublin where they will discuss with their peers and Irish authorities Argentina’s position in the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty dispute.

“Our visit to Ireland can be catalogued as historic, because for the first time the Parliament in Dublin has invited us to explain Argentina’s position regarding its rights over the Malvinas Islands”, said Senator Daniel Filmus, chairman of the Foreign affairs committee on Wednesday.

“This is really an event because never before the Irish parliament had called officially on our committee for an in depth report of the Argentine position ahead of the coming meeting of the UN Decolonization Committee (C24), on the Malvinas question next June 20”, added Filmus.

The legislators delegation is accompanied by staff from Argentina’s Foreign Affairs ministry, and will be present both when they meet with their ‘Irish peers’ who have publicly expressed “support for Argentina in the Malvinas dispute with the UK”, but also when they meet with the Irish president and former head of the Irish Labour party Michael Higgins.

“Exactly a year ago President Cristina Fernandez travelled to New York to specially participate in the UN Decolonization Committee session on the Malvinas question, and in the framework of that visit she was grateful to all the different countries, among which Ireland, that supported UN resolutions on the Malvinas”, recalled Senator Filmus.

Finally he underlined “the active strategy that we have deployed in the different international organizations and bodies during the last decade, first with Nestor Kirchner as head of the Executive, and later under the leadership of Cristina Fernandez on the Malvinas question, always present in the speeches before different global forums”.

From Ireland the delegation of lawmakers and ministerial staff will be travelling to London where they are scheduled to meet with MP Robert Walters, Chair of the British Group of the International Parliamentary Union. Tory MP Walters represents North Dorset; IPU is a world-wide organization of parliamentarians working for peace and co-operation among peoples and the firm establishment of representative institutions.