MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cafiero claims the Falklands during a ministerial Atlantic Basin meeting chaired by US Secretary of State

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken chairs the meeting to consider organizing an Atlantic Basin Association

Foreign minister Santiago Cafiero said that ”Argentina aspires the South Atlantic becomes a region recognized as an example of peace and dialogue among nations. For this it is essential to find a solution, through peaceful means, to the sovereignty controversy between Argentina and the UK regarding the Malvinas, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands, and adjoining maritime spaces, a controversy which has been ongoing for almost 190 years.

The meeting convened by the US included ministers from Portugal; Brazil; Ghana; Angola; Canada; Colombia; Costa Rica; Guinea-Bissau; Spain; UK; Ivory Coast; Mauritania; Netherlands, Ireland and Equatorial Guinea

“We must preserve this region from extra region political tensions, and that is why we underline precisely Resolution 41/11 from the UN General Assembly, which solemnly declared the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America as a Zone of Peace and Cooperation”.

“In this context the military presence of the UK in the South Atlantic is unjustified, disproportionate and in violation of Resolution 2065, which calls on all states of all regions in the world, but specifically those militarily more powerful, to respect this declaration,” pointed out Cafiero during the Tuesday meeting held at the New York Lotte Palace Hotel.

Finally, Cafiero insisted that Argentina “reaffirms, in an inclaudicable form, its legitimate rights over these territories. The UN in the above mentioned resolution defined the Malvinas Question as a special and particular decolonization case. Likewise the Organization of American States, OAS and other international and regional forae, have systematically called for the resumption of bilateral negotiations, as the means to put an end to the dispute.”

The Atlantic Basin Cooperation association can be interpreted as a US effort to counter the growing influence of China in the Americas.