MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas question dispute: new phase in Argentina/UK relations will create favorable conditions

“President Macri has prompted a new phase in relations with the UK”, Faurie (c) said on Thursday during the C24 debate at the UN building in New York.

Foreign minister Jorge Faurie reiterated before the United Nations Decolonization Committee or C24, that Argentina wishes to establish a dialogue with the UK to solve the Malvinas Islands dispute, and underlined he believed that “favorable conditions” for such a scenario have been created and are advancing.

“In the framework of this Argentine claim to resume negotiations, Argentine president Maurico Macri has prompted a new phase in relations with the UK”, Faurie said on Thursday during the C24 debate at the UN building in New York.

Faurie also underlined president Macri's efforts to improve cooperation with London in many areas and defended the current approach of closer relations to help solve the Malvinas question.

“The government of president Macri, my government, is convinced that only with an open, substantial and constructive spirit dialogue with the UK, we will be able to reach a climate of cooperation in issues of mutual interest, generating the sufficient confidence that must exist between both sides as to address direct negotiations” on the matter, said the Argentine official.

Speaking to the media Faurie supported that “to have a negotiation process it is necessary to have a climate of confidence” in such a way “that both sides can sit at a table but sitting at a table in a constructive climate in which the potential of a bilateral relation can be perceived”.

Further on the minister said that Argentina is working to create the necessary trust and confidence conditions, but so far, and despite advances in many different areas, there is no date on sight for the beginning of possible negotiations on the Malvinas question dispute.

Argentina has been attending the UN meetings to expose the need for negotiations with the UK to address the Malvinas controversy, a position which has been systematically supported by the C24 committee.

And as expected following the presentations and petitions, the C24 approved on Thursday a consensus resolution calling on both sides to dialogue and a return to negotiations resumption.

The resolution text was sponsored by several Latin American country members, which in their speeches again supported Argentina's claim, underlining the significance for the region of the so called Malvinas question.

Minister Faurie's delegation to the C24 meeting included lawmakers from the different political parties with congressional representations and Rosana Bertone, governor of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego.

Faurie underlined that the wide ranging delegation is evidence that the Malvinas question claim “transcends governments and different policies” and represents “a true State policy”, and which “time has not diminished at all its validity” or conviction that this sovereignty dispute must be addressed and solved peacefully, through bilateral negotiations.

The minister also recalled that the Argentine constitution establishes the recovery of the insular territories as an objective, and at the same time the commitment to respect the way of life of the Islands inhabitants.

During the morning session in New York, besides Argentine petitioners that defended the claim over the Islands, two members of the Falklands' elected Legislative Assembly, MLA Ian Hansen, and MLA Roger Edwards underlined the Falklands are a British Overseas Territory, overwhelmingly confirmed in the 2013 referendum and which enjoy a democratic self government and self sufficient, but for foreign affairs and defense.