MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei reinstates ambassador Foradori, who signed the Falklands 2016 Joint Communiqué

Ambassador Carlos Foradori (R) and ex Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan

An Argentine professional diplomat, who was vilified by the Kirchnerite political establishment for having signed during the mandate of ex-president Mauricio Macri (2015/2019), a Joint Communiqué with Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan in September 2016, has been reinstated as ambassador, head of the different organizations that function in Geneva, Switzerland.

Carlos Foradori who at the time, 2016, was deputy foreign minister of Argentina was intentionally accused by the Kirchnerite government of Alberto Fernandez and Cristina Fernandez of having signed the Joint Communiqué “while drunk”, misinterpreting memoris of his British counterpart, Sir Alan Duncan.

The real facts are that the president Macri administration wanted improved political, trade, culture relations with UK and Point 10 referred to the South Atlantic and the Falkland Islands, which made the Kirchnerites furious and were prepared to ignore it, particularly mentions of helping promote and develop the Islands economy.

The South Atlantic point said that “In a positive spirit, both sides agreed to set up a dialogue to improve cooperation on South Atlantic issues of mutual interest. Both governments agreed that the formula on sovereignty in paragraph 2 of the Joint Statement of 19 October 1989 applies to this Joint Communique and to its consequences. In this context it was agreed to take the appropriate measures to remove all obstacles limiting the economic growth and sustainable development of the Falkland Islands, including in trade, fishing, shipping and hydrocarbons. Both parties emphasised the benefits of cooperation and positive engagement for all concerned.

”In accordance with the principles set out in the 14 July 1999 Joint Statement and Exchange of Letters, both sides agreed that further air links between the Falkland Islands and third countries would be established. In this context they agreed the establishment of 2 additional stops per month in mainland Argentina, one in each direction. The specific details will be defined.

”Both delegations expressed their full support for a DNA identification process in respect of unknown Argentine soldiers buried in the Darwin cemetery. Discussions on this sensitive humanitarian issue will be taken forward in Geneva on the basis of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) assessment supplemented by bilateral discussions as required. Both sides agreed that the wishes of the families concerned were paramount.“

However in his 2022 book of memoirs, ”Thick of it: the private diaries of a minister”, Alan Duncan, recalls that the British Embassy in Buenos Aires has an excellent wine cellar with its walls covered in exquisite Merlot, and apparently that is where the Foradori/Duncan Joint Communiqué was finally agreed, 'and as bottles were opened the atmosphere kept improving and at 02:00 in the morning of 12/13 September the two finally officials shook hands. To make facst even more confusing the recently arrived new British ambassador, Mark Kent revealed that the following day Foradori had rung the embassy saying he did not recall many of the details of what happened the previous night.'

This was sufficient for the foreign minister of the following Kirchnerite government, (2019/2023) Santiago Cafiero, to notify the United Kingdom that Argentina was unilaterally ending the 2016 communiqué regarding the disputed Falkland Islands, a move British officials described as “disappointing.” This was March 2023.

In effect during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Summit in New Delhi, India, Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero formally notified his British counterpart James Cleverly that Argentina was terminating the September 2016 joint communiqué known as the so-called ‘Foradori-Duncan’ pact.

In a post on Twitter, Cafiero also said that Argentina’s government had proposed “resuming negotiations on the sovereignty issue” and called for a meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Cafiero said he proposed “an agenda of issues that, as a minimum, should be part of the negotiation process that we are promoting” and said his government is “complying with the mandate of the General Assembly and the United Nations Decolonization Committee,” he underlined.

Reacting to the news, the UK expressed its disappointment and rejected the invitation to resume negotiations on the sovereignty of the islands. “The Falkland Islands are British,” Cleverly responded on Twitter quoting Cafiero's thread.

“Islanders have the right to decide their own future – they have chosen to remain a self-governing UK Overseas Territory,” he added.

However with Argentine decree 317/2024, President Javier Milei and Foreign Minister Diana Mondino appointed Foradori as the next ambassador in Geneva of the Argentine interests in the different organizations  of the Swiss city.