MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas OAS resolution calls for resumption of UK/Argentina negotiations on sovereignty

Insulza and Loizaga reading out the declaration at the end of the assembly

The Organization of American States, OAS, annual assembly unanimously approved on Thursday a resolution on the Malvinas Islands calling on Argentina and the UK to resume negotiations regarding the sovereignty dispute.

 The Malvinas Question Declaration was presented by Brazil and in a second round by Uruguay. The declaration was read out to the assembly by Eladio Loizaga, foreign minister of Paraguay, where the 44th annual assembly met this week under the banner of “development with social inclusion”.

The declaration states “the need for the governments of Argentina and the UK to resume, at the earliest, negotiations on the sovereignty dispute, with the purpose of finding a peaceful solution to this prolonged dispute”.

However Canada expressed its dissidence with the declaration stating that “only the inhabitants of the Falklands/Malvinas have the right to decide their future” and called on the OAS assembly “to concentrate on all the challenges common for all members” of the organization.

Faced with this situation Uruguay's Foreign minister Luis Almagro requested the declaration be considered by 'acclamation', and following the vote Loizaga then used the word 'unanimous' approval.

The United States delegation remained silent during the whole discussion.

In his address in support of the resolution, Argentina's Foreign minister Hector Timerman said that “Argentina as the great majority of country-members of the Assembly, sustain the firm conviction that the construction of an international order in which all nations, absolutely all nations, have the chance to make their rights validated demands that resolutions adopted by this kind of organizations are effectively complied. Which means that not only is the solution of the dispute at stake, but also the concept that the negotiations-principle must prevail and the notion that countries in a position to systematically dismiss resolutions from this type of organizations, do not exist”.

Timerman also referred to the 'illegal' exploitation of natural resources in the Argentine Sea (South West Atlantic) underlining that “such arbitrary and non consulted exploitation is also contrary to international law, because it contravenes a previous UN resolution which calls on the sides to abstain from unilateral measures susceptible of aggravating the conflict”.

Finally Timerman reaffirmed the Argentine government's willingness to continue exploring all possible means to reach a peaceful solution to the controversy, taking into account the interests and respecting the way of life of the Malvinas Islands inhabitants“.

In the framework of the presentation of its case the Argentine delegation at the OAS assembly distributed among all country members a recently published book with all the documents referred to the Malvinas question approved by the UN, OAS and other international and regional forums 'as evidence of the significant international support that the Argentina case has'.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, in a brief intervention on the matter said that he was only aware on 'this very day' that Argentina has been claiming the Malvinas since the day OAS was born in 1948, 'in that first assembly, 66 years ago Argentina made its sovereignty claim over the Islands”.

He added that this was a clear signal for “all those who argue that Argentina's claim in only recent, that this is not the case”. Likewise the book distributed in the Assembly is a collection of all OAS, UN resolutions on the Malvinas claim and “I must emphasize that Argentina since the recovery of democracy in 1983, has consistently and systematically stated its sovereignty claim over the Malvinas” in our organization.

“This should encourage us to continue to pursue the Malvinas question since it has become a demand from all countries of the Americas”, concluded Insulza.