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Montevideo, March 28th 2024 - 09:57 UTC

 

 

Argentina suspends Strategic Dialogue on defense issues with UK

Tuesday, March 3rd 2020 - 08:58 UTC
Full article 3 comments
The postponement follows on recommendations from Daniel Filmus, head of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands Secretariat  (Pic Perfil) The postponement follows on recommendations from Daniel Filmus, head of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands Secretariat (Pic Perfil)

Argentine minister of Defense Agustin Rossi announced the decision to postpone a Strategic Dialogue meeting with UK peers which was scheduled to take place during the first week of March.

 The event is a legacy of the previous Argentine administration of president Mauricio Macri and postponement follows on recommendations from Daniel Fimus, head of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands Secretariat, according to Buenos Aires sources.

Since Alberto Fernandez took office in Argentina, in two of his main speeches to congress, on 10 Decemeber and last Sunday, March first, the president outlined a South Atlantic policy quite distant from that, with constructive spirit, which emerged from the September 2016 joint communiqué, under Macri.

So it should not come as a surprise that following on Sunday's announcement, a new version of the Kirchnerite approach to Falklands' affairs, Argentina has decided to postpone the meeting which was to take place in London.

On Sunday president Fernandez announced he would be soon sending three bills to Congress, the creation of a special catch-all council for Malvinas affairs, the delimitation of the outer border of Argentina's continental shelf, based on the UN Law of the Sea, extending coastal states' jurisdiction from 200 to 350 miles over seafloor and subsurface resources. UN admits that there is a sovereignty dispute over the South Atlantic islands which leaves them out of the overall demarcation. Finally a review of the Federal Fisheries Scheme which anticipates stricter conditions and fines for illegal fishing in Argentine jurisdiction or in waters with Argentine sovereignty over living marine resources, “which includes the Malvinas Islands”.

The meeting in London of the Strategic Dialogue was supposed to address joint SAR exercises (Search and Rescue), and apparently planning them somewhere in the South Atlantic with the Argentine navy. However this apparently has now been suspended, but should not have been an impediment since they follow on international law and rules, with specific geographic responsibilities. An example of this was the major SAR operation to try and find the lost Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, which included Royal Navy vessels, and RAF units, among so many other countries. .

 

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  • Brit Bob

    pgerman

    Critics of the Argentine government’s strategies and rhetoric toward the Falkland islands have coined a new verb – malvinizar – to describe how the claim for and memory of the Malvinas is used simply to divert attention away from more serious domestic socio-economic challenges .

    Mar 03rd, 2020 - 02:47 pm +3
  • Roger Lorton

    Argentina's loss.

    Mar 03rd, 2020 - 12:40 pm +2
  • pgerman

    Inflation does not yield, there is more economic recession, unemployment increases, the country does not honor its debts, social pressure is increasing, disappointment is very great, the new government is losing popularity in an amazing way .... nothing better than going back to the Malvinas issue to get some popularity !!!

    Mar 03rd, 2020 - 01:29 pm +2
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