MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FIGO congratulates new Secretary of Defense Shapps and acknowledges outgoing Wallace

Incoming Defense Secretary Shapps and outgoing Ben Wallace

The Falklands government Office in London, FIGO, has sent congratulations to the new UK Secretary of State for Defense, Grant Shapps, a staunch supporter of the Falkland Islands and its right to self determination and to decide on its future.

“Congratulations on your appointment as new Secretary of State for Defense. We look forward to working with you,” said the brief message from FIGO to the new Secretary, who has held several ministerial posts in the cabinet.

Likewise there was a strong acknowledgement for resigning Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, who held the job for several years. “He is a strong supporter of the Falkland Islands and played a leading role in ensuring a significant number of veterans were able to return to the Islands in 2022, to mark the fortieth anniversary of the South Atlantic conflict and the Liberation of the Falkland Islands.”

Wallace completed nine years as minister and four of them in Defense, and as PM Rishi Sunak said, Ben served in the most demanding posts in government, defense secretary, security minister and Northern Ireland minister.

In related news the Falkland Islanders Resistance memorial has now been completed with the financial help of Falklands Government, FIG, Islands Companies and supported over the past two years by many Islanders.

Organizer Mike Colton from the Friends of the Allied Special Forces Memorial grove said, “Thank you all for your kind help with this very important memorial in the UK which will bring to life the brave acts of resistance by many Islanders during the 1982 Conflict. This memorial is now firmly established in the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove at the National Memorial Arboretum UK”.

The new memorial recognizes the resistance movement among residents of the Falkland Islands during the conflict in 1982. Situated in the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove at the National Memorial Arboretum, it features three Falklands Geese and was designed by Bromley O’Hare.

Mike Colton explained that: “During the 1982 Falklands conflict, the Islanders had to resist the invaders in many covert ways as they could have been accused of spying – which is exactly what some of them did, with the vital information about weapons and enemy positions was soon being transmitted to Great Britain.

“Before the Task Force arrived, during the land battles and after the liberation, the Islanders helped our forces.

“When veterans visit the old battlefields now, they are hosted and applauded by the population for giving them their freedom from an evil regime.”

The permanent memorial will be officially dedicated on 12th June 2024.