MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine leaders condemn Johnson's speech, but insist on humanitarian flights

Following Johnson’s statements, Argentina's Malvinas Secretary Guillermo Carmona replied that “appealing to military arguments is something unnecessary.”

Argentine authorities have condemned over the weekend an announcement by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson regarding next year's 40th anniversary years of the Falklands War.

In his Christmas message to the Islanders, Johnson assured that “one thing that remains absolutely unchanged is the United Kingdom's commitment to the Falkland Islands and its people.”

“It is as firm a commitment as it was when General Moore accepted General Menendez's surrender. And I can promise you now that this will not change,” he added.

Johnson also recalled that “even the International Table Tennis Federation recognized, in the face of noisy protests from some sectors, the inviolable sovereignty of table tennis players of the Falklands.”

Following those statements, Argentina's Malvinas Secretary Guillermo Carmona replied that “appealing to military arguments is something unnecessary.” Carmona added that “when reason is lacking, militarist rhetoric appears.” He also regretted Johnson's speech would seem to ignore “38 years of Argentine democracy.” The official also said he was confident Argentina would regain sovereignty over the islands “by appealing to the reasons given to us by international law and the exercise of diplomacy.”

Meanwhile, Tierra del Fuego Governor Gustavo Melella said Johnson's comments were “a violation of international law” and of dozens of United Nations resolutions which “demand the end of colonialism in the world.”

At the same time, Argentina's Foreign Ministry has insisted yet again over the weekend that everything was ready to offer humanitarian flights to Chilean citizens residing in the Falkland Islands and who have been stranded there, unable to return to their country, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the cancellation of regular air services between the Islands and the South American mainland.

The Foreign Ministry said it had acknowledged the British government's point that most people were from Chile, which is why the new offer involves flights that would depart from Argentina to pick up the Chilean nationals and bring them straight to Punta Arenas or any other Chilean airport “to attend to personal, health or family matters.”

The Argentine Foreign Ministry insisted “that neither the cause of the isolation suffered by the residents of Malvinas nor any negative can be attributed to the Argentine Republic, given the gesture of goodwill that our government has expressed and reiterated.”