MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina insists Malvinas negotiations with UK are essential if bilateral relations are to advance

Boris Johnson and president Fernandez during their tête-à-tête meeting in Baviera on the margins of the G7 summit

On a few occasions and at such level, has Argentina had the opportunity to say that if the relation between Argentina and UK is to increase, first we must address the Falklands/Malvinas question, otherwise “that relation will not advance”.

The statement is from Argentine foreign minister Santiago Cafiero, who this week following on Monday's president Alberto Fernandez, Prime Minister Boris Johnson bilateral meeting in Germany, insisted that Buenos Aires is prepared to resume the bilateral dialogue with UK on the Malvinas Islands sovereignty.

The point has been iterative despite the fact that UK Prime Minister told Fernandez that the Falklands issue, after the war and forty years, and as far as he was concerned, “it was the end of the matter”.

Regarding media reports that the meeting was acrimonious, Johnson described it “as frank, it was free but it seemed to me to be friendly”... This was because the UK prime minister allegedly complained the Falklands issue was brought up when the G 7 leaders were focused on Ukraine and the war.

However Cafiero pointed out that president Fernandez was ”not disrespectful, he was firm and determined, since there is no way to avoid negotiations or the mechanisms that the international community has designed to solve the sovereignty issue“.

Cafiero insisted that Argentina is willing and ready to resume the ”bilateral dialogue“ with UK on the Malvinas question, something which is indispensable ”to improve and advance relations” between Buenos Aires and London.