MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's closeness to China, Russia worries London amid Ukraine crisis

Falklands issue arises as Argentina rubs elbows with Russia and China and the Ukraine crisis keeps escalating

London is noticing Argentine President Alberto Fernández's foreign policy, particularly Sunday's joint written statement whereby the South American country backed China's claim over Taiwan and, in return, the Government of Xi Jinping supported Argentina's sovereignty quest regarding the Falkland Islands.

What could have been just rhetorics came in a world scenario where Western powers like the United States and the United Kingdom stand together with Ukraine while Fernández just visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow before meeting with Xi in Beijing.

Following Sunday's Summit between Xi and Fernández, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss tweeted “China must respect the Falklands’ sovereignty.” She also stressed the Falklands were a “part of the British family.” Truss also said the United Kingdom would uphold the Falkland Islanders' “right to self-determination.”

“We completely reject any questions over sovereignty of the Falklands,” she added.

According to this past weekend's deal “China reiterated its support for Argentina's claims for the full exercise of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands issue, as well as for the resumption as soon as possible of the negotiations aimed at a peaceful solution to the dispute, in accordance with resolutions of the United Nations Organization” and Fernández reaffirmed Argentina's adherence to the “one China principle.”

When asked by a Chinese reporter for the China Daily, an English-language newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party, if it was okay for the UK to challenge China’s sovereignty in the South China Sea by sending navy vessels, Truss replied that “at least China has not sent its navy near the Malvinas, or what you call the Falklands.”

Xi has also met with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to discuss the ongoing Ukraine crisis, after which they both criticized foreign “interference in the internal affairs” of other states.

With China having shown increasing support for Moscow, MP Tobias Ellwood tweeted “Putin is not in China to discuss the bobsleigh but to further align Russia away from the West to the East. This is the axis of power that will dominate our era“ and said he believed a Russian invasion was ”imminent.”