MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas: Argentina calls on UK for dialogue and sovereignty discussions

The Argentine people and government “reaffirm their imprescriptible sovereignty rights” over the austral territories and maritime spaces inherited from Spain

Argentina has invited the United Kingdom to advance with the dialogue initiated last year to resume negotiations to enable in the shortest time possible, to find a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas Islands, abiding the iterative calls from the international community, according to a release from the Argentine foreign ministry.

 The release recalls that on (Tuesday) January 3rd is the 184 anniversary of the “usurpation of the Malvinas Islands”, when British military force expelled the local population and legitimate authorities, and replaced them with British nationals. Argentina “immediately protested this act of illegitimate force, without having consented in any moment”

The Argentine people and government “reaffirm once again the imprescriptible sovereignty rights of the Argentine republic over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime spaces”.

The release also points out that “from the very beginning of its existence as an independent nation, the Argentine republic has externalized through acts of government its firm political determination to exercise effective sovereignty over the austral territories and maritime spaces inherited from Spain”, and thus reaffirms its sovereignty rights in the South Atlantic insular territories.

Further on it recalls that the “First transitory clause of the National Constitution consecrates the standing unwaiverable objective of recovering full sovereignty exercise over those territories and maritime spaces, in conformity with the principles of International Law and respecting the way of life of the Malvinas Islands inhabitants”, a target which is a State policy and responds to the wishes of the Argentine people.

Latin America has been unanimous in the support of the legitimate sovereignty rights of Argentina with various statements from the Mercosur presidential summits, the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), the community of Latin American and Caribbean states, (Celac), underlined the release adding that other multilateral and regional forums had openly expressed in favor of the resumption of such negotiations including the OAS, the Group of 77 and China, the Summit of South American and Arab Countries, (Aspa), the summit of South American and African countries (Asa) and the Ibero-American summit.

Finally, Argentina iterates its firm commitment with the peaceful solutions of controversies and respect for International Law, and invites the UK to deepen dialogue initiated during the last year with the purpose of finding in the shortest time possible, a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas, South Georgia, and South Sandwich islands, and surrounding maritime spaces, in conformity with the repeated calls from the international community”, concludes the release.