MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Islands, CELAC and the right to self-determination

Is annexation now something Cuba supports over and above the right to self-determination?

By Tim Cole - This week the CELAC Summit will be held in Havana and the Cuban government will be in charge of finalizing the language in the Summit declarations. Inevitably there will be one on the Falkland Islands and I suspect it will ignore the referendum held on the Islands last year when 99.8% voted in favor of the Islands remaining an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.

That’s an uncomfortable fact for Argentina and one which they would prefer the rest of the world ignores. It’s one of the reasons why they want to keep the Falkland Islanders out of any discussions on the future of the Islands and I am pretty sure they won’t mention it to their CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) colleagues next week.

But why does Cuba support the Argentine position? Surely the tale of an island people defending their livelihoods and their families in a country fiercely resistant to annexation by a big neighbor is something Cuba would be sympathetic to? Is annexation now something Cuba supports over and above the right to self-determination? Or am I missing something?

Argentina claims it’s a question of territorial integrity but that is, frankly, baseless. The Islands have never legitimately been administered by, or formed part of Argentina. British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1765, several decades before Argentina even existed.

Contrary to what Argentina says no civilian population was expelled from the Falkland Islands in 1833. The Argentine military garrison which had been sent to the Falkland Islands a mere three months earlier was told to leave by the British Navy, and it complied without any loss of life. The civilian population who had previously received British permission to reside on the Island were encouraged to remain, and most of them did. In the 181 years of continuous and peaceful British administration since then, apart from the 74 days in 1982 when Argentina illegally occupied the Islands by force, more immigrants from various countries have settled in the Islands. Several Island families are now proud to trace back eight or nine generations on the Islands. That’s more than many Cubans in Cuba!

History aside, the UK is clear that the future of the Falkland Islands should be determined by the people of the Falkland Islands, in accordance with our obligations under the UN Charter, to respect the principle of self determination. If the Islanders democratically express a wish for an alternative future sovereignty arrangement then we will help the Islanders to achieve that. But through their referendum they have made clear their wish to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. This permits them to have their own government, make their own laws, run their own economy and control their own resources, whilst the UK retains responsibility for their defense and foreign relations.

Ultimately the Falkland Islanders would like to have a friendly relationship with Argentina but that has proved impossible. Why? Because recent Argentine policy has included preventing Falklands flagged vessels from docking in Mercosur ports, preventing cruise ships which are also docking in the Falklands from visiting Argentina, banning charter flights to the Falklands from overflying their airspace and threatening oil companies operating in the Falklands with sanctions and prosecution. They ceased co-operation on the conservation of sustainable fish stocks in the SW Atlantic some years ago. Does this sound like a ‘constructive’ approach to you as described in last year’s CELAC declaration? Doesn’t this sound more like a big guy trying to bully a small neighbor into submission?

To me it seems the policy is designed to put economic pressure on the Islanders in the hope this will make them want to negotiate about sovereignty. But, uncomfortable as it is for Argentina, the Falkland Islanders have every right to decide how they want to be governed – this right of self-determination is a right accepted as so fundamental that it is enshrined in Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations. It is a right that all peoples enjoy and that is why the Falkland Islanders held the referendum in 2013 – to tell the world what they think. They said then that they wish to remain British and there is no question of the British Government forcing them to be anything else.

This also explains why the British government will only talk to Argentina about the future of the Islands if the people of the Falklands wish this to happen. We won’t pretend they don’t exist or ignore their views. We won’t negotiate away the rights of the Falkland Islands’ people against their will or behind their backs. We – and the rest of the world – know what they want and that must be respected. I truly hope that CELAC reflect on this when drafting their declaration this week.

(*) UK ambassador in Cuba