MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands/Gibraltar: Argentina and Spain agree to team up and pressure UK

The agreement was reached by Garcia-Margallo and Timerman and on the sidelines of the UN assembly

Argentina and Spain agreed on Thursday to team up to pressure Britain to discuss their separate claims on British territories: the Falklands in the south Atlantic and Gibraltar near the southern tip of Spain.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and his Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, reached the agreement in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a release.

“They discussed the common ground regarding sovereignty disputes over the Falklands and Gibraltar” it said in a statement. “They agreed on joint measures to press Great Britain to comply with the mandate from the United Nations to dialogue” it said.

Argentina and Spain have been at odds since last year after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez seized a majority stake in YPF oil company, which was a unit of Spain's Repsol. But the two countries have a history of solidarity over Gibraltar and the Falklands.

London rejected last month a Spanish proposal for bilateral talks on Gibraltar. Britain says it will respect the wishes of Gibraltar's 30,000 people, who have repeatedly stated they want to remain British. Similarly, London has said it will not discuss sovereignty of the Falklands without including the Islanders that last March held a referendum which overwhelmingly voted to remain a British Overseas Territory.

Gibraltar and the Falklands are on a U.N. list of non-self-governing territories that are subject to a process of decolonization.