MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Timerman happy with the way he is running Malvinas policy

The statement from the Argentine official was in reply to UK minister Swire

Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman said he must be doing the right things regarding the Falklands/Malvinas issue because the Foreign Office prefers to talk to members of the opposition.

 His statement was in reply to British Minister of State for the Foreign Office Hugo Swire, who on Wednesday in Montevideo, interviewed by the Argentine government news agency Telam said that he would rather sit at the negotiating table with Sergio Massa or Mauricio Macri to discuss the sovereignty of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands.

“I’m proud to hear a British official would prefer not to speak with me. If they choose other political parties as their ideal negotiators that means we must be doing something right”, Timerman said to reporters after a conference held at the Defense Ministry in Buenos Aires.

Timerman assured that the UK official’s statements were “mistaken, as our policy towards Malvinas is not just this government's it belongs to all Argentines and Latin Americans”.

Minister Swire alleged that in 2015 a new government will take office in Argentina, since Cristina Fernández has to step down and whoever succeeds, in this case representatives of Argentina’s opposition, would show a “more mature vision” over the bilateral dispute than the Kirchnerite government.

He also recalled that this week was the first anniversary of the Falklands' referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Falkland Islanders, making use of their right to decide on their future, decided to remain a British Overseas Territories.

This means that in the future any talks regarding the Falklands will necessarily have to include the Falkland Islanders.