MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina withdraws from Foradori-Duncan Treaty

Cafiero suggested Cleverly that Argentina and the UK sat in New York at the UN headquarters to discuss sovereignty over the Falklands and the other South Atlantic islands

Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero Thursday told his British colleague James Cleverly that the South American country was pulling out of the Foradori-Duncan agreement signed between both countries in 2016 and which was pivotal to the identification of bodies of soldiers known only to God buried in the Falkland Islands, among other improvements in bilateral ties.

 The 2016 treaty constituted “one of the most damaging facts for the historical claim for the exercise of sovereignty over the islands,” Argentina's Foreign Ministry claimed, while Cafiero insisted during his meeting with Cleverly in New Delhi that such a document granted concessions to the interests of the United Kingdom regarding the exploitation of natural resources in the South Atlantic.

During a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers in India, Cafiero told Cleverly Argentina was canceling the agreement signed by the administration of former President Mauricio Macri at the British embassy in Buenos Aires. Cafiero also suggested both countries hold a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss the issue of sovereignty over the South Atlantic islands. The agreement was named after its signatories: Argentina's Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Foradori and the United Kingdom's Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, Alan Duncan.

Through the agreement, an attempt was made to guarantee the United Kingdom “the removal of all obstacles to the economic growth and sustainable development of the islands, disarming a strategy that had been promoted to put limits to the illegal occupation and the plundering of the natural resources of the archipelago,” recalled Argentina's Foreign Ministry through a statement.

“That document made concessions to the British interests in the region and notably set back the just claim for sovereignty, it was even made to be transcended as a 'joint communiqué' to avoid complying with the constitutional obligation of submitting to the approval of the National Congress the international agreements signed by the Executive Power”. It is, therefore, an act that has “manifestly illegitimate and aggravating characteristics for the national interests,” the San Martín Palace went on.

“None of Argentina's historic claims were present in the text” and “no mention of the sovereignty dispute,” Argentina's communiqué read. “Nor does it mention the military base that exists in the South Atlantic peace and cooperation zone. In fact, the only obstacle for the economic development of the Malvinas is, precisely, the persistence of the sovereignty dispute that the United Kingdom refuses to negotiate,” Argentina's Foreign Ministry went on.

Had it not been for the reaction of broad political and social sectors, especially Congress and war veterans, its consequences would have been irreparable, the Argentine Government believes.

The actual implications of Thursday's announcement remain to be seen.