MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
“The Falklands problem is not the Islanders or the English, but us Argentines,” points out Cisneros
“Until Argentina does not become a serious, reliable, respected country with friends, there is no chance of having the Islands returned,” Andres Cisneros The Falklands/Malvinas will eventually be returned to Argentina but that is going to be a long, long road, forecasted Andres Cisneros a retired Argentine diplomat expert in the Falklands/Malvinas dispute and deputy foreign minister with Guido Di Tella in the nineties.
“The problem are not the Islanders or the English, the problem are Argentines, until Argentina again becomes a serious, respectful, reliable, trust worthy country, with a strong economy and the right friends in the world, instead of a disoriented, begging, friendless country, we will have to continue waiting for decades, ” underlined Cisneros.
Cisneros was consulted on the controversy surrounding Ms Diana Mondino, (probably Argentina's next foreign minister) statements on the rights of Falkland Islanders, and to the surprise of the Argentine media had words of praise for Mondino.
“She is a very capable, intelligent person. fluent in several languages and will make an excellent foreign minister,” pointed out Cisneros who follows closely Falklands/Malvinas events. “She may have committed some minor mistakes in her statements, as a freshman in the future job, but I will always believe Ms Mondino in the controversy with The Telegraph, since UK media is tricky and likes to set traps”
Among the mistakes allegedly committed by Ms Mondino, Cisneros pointed out to the fact the expression Islanders' rights was too ample, and should have been more specific, since most rights of Islanders are contemplated in the Argentine constitution of 1994. Similarly not making the difference between 'interests' and 'wishes', a corner stone of Argentine arguments. But overall Cisneros anticipated she would be a great foreign minister, and insisted that both Milei and Mondino, like the majority of Argentines, want the Malvinas returned.
Cisneros praised Mondino and Milei for bringing up the Hong Kong case, when the colony was returned to China through diplomacy and common sense, and mentioned the skills of British diplomacy in letting go its empire and colonies. “Why keep a colony lost in the South Atlantic, it's not an English whim,” Cisneros said who then mentioned two occasions in which London was prepared to hand over the Falklands.
The first was in president Peron's last presidency 1973. “The English offered to hand the Islands in a hundred years, but in the meantime sovereignty and administration was to be shared by the two countries. Peron accepted immediately and ordered foreign minister Vignes to prepare all the documents. Unfortunately Peron died not long after...”
Allegedly Peron's only objection was “tell the English to be more polite not a hundred years, make it fifty!”.
Another occasion was October 1981, when Foreign Office minister Nicholas Ridley made the same 100 years offer with shared administration. “At the time Argentina was ruled by a divided military Junta and they were not forthcoming to the proposal. In effect they had other things in mind because as we all know now, six months later they invaded the Falklands, 1982”.
Cisneros finally revealed that the famous “seduction” policy which included gifts of Winnie the Pooh, was not intended to the Islanders, “they will never accept us”, but rather UK public opinion and voters.
“Make the British aware they were holding on to a costly, distracting colony in the South Atlantic, it was time to change and forget about the Malvinas and return them to Argentina”. That was our intention with Di Tella, “seducing the English electorate”.
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Read all commentsFeeling ignored HeavyGoods? Nobody responding? There may be a good reason for that. Perhaps you should try more facts and less crap?
Sep 17th, 2023 - 10:44 pm +1Nothing was usurped from Argentina. Argentina had no rights. Argentina has never managed to occupy and hold the islands for more than a few weeks. Not at any point in its history. America threw you off in December, 1831. Britain did the same in January, 1833. If you cannot hold on to a territory, you cannot claim that it is yours.
The UN? No UN resolution for 35 years. The last was in 1988, and it was answered to the satisfaction of the UN - otherwise they'd have adopted another. The C24 deceives you. Adopts a Falklands resolution in June of every year, only to abandon it in August when it thinks no-one is looking. And 193 members of the UN say - nothing.
Argentina's supposed support is just so much hot air.
It’s not really a ‘cost’ as such to the defence budget to defend the S. Atlantic, they are deployable forces which if they were not there, they would be somewhere else like the Med, middle east, Rumania or even the far east.
Sep 24th, 2023 - 02:31 pm +1If you closed the MP base next month you would not save a penny, but merely add the cost of moving everything somewhere else.
And if the base was closed we all know what would happen, there would be Argy settlements on S. Georgia within a week, Argy ships would be patrolling Falkland’s waters and that would just be the start.
If the ‘cost’ were ten times as much and 1% of defence spending, or more, this would not be a problem to the British, such is the importance they attach to defending the Islanders rights and the strategic location in the S. Atlantic, not least in securing access to the British Antarctic territories.
In which way do the Falkland Islands cost the UK public? The only financial input from the UK is in defence, and even that is a minuscule amount, less than 1% of the annual defence budget.
Sep 17th, 2023 - 08:33 am 0Again, this chimera of the handing back of Hong Kong. The situation was entirely different. Hong Kong was leased from China for 99 years and by agreement was given back, but look at Hong Kong now. The fakery of respecting the citizens' wishes was completely ignored. The same fate would befall the people of the Falklands, were the islands given to Argentina.
And, there are three governments involved here, not just the Argentines and the “English”, but also the Islanders ourselves. Not negotiations can progress without the inclusion of the Falkland Islands Government. Whether or not the “issue” of “reclaiming” the Falklands is part of the Argentine Constitution or not, it is part of our Constitution that we have the right to self-determination. We do not wish to become a part of Argentina.
In 1973 and 1981, the people of the Falklands were ignored. Ridley made a grave error in making a case for handing over the islands. At no point have Islanders wanted to be gifted to Argentina. At the time Ridley's idiocy was protested and today, our future is decided by the populace, not the UK Government.
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