MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mondino says conditions are in place to resume flights from Córdoba to Mount Pleasant

“The mainland and the islands should have better connections,” insisted Mondino

Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino insisted Monday in an interview published by the Financial Times that ”the conditions are in place to resume flights to the Malvinas (Falklands)” from Córdoba. These flights were halted during the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed due to tensions between the former governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom, both of which are no longer in power.

However, Mondino said that the “frequency” of the flights “would have to be determined by an airline that considers it convenient.” She added that “what we have done as a country is to say that the conditions are in place for it to be done.”

Between 2019 and 2020, LatAm Airlines operated a weekly flight to Mount Pleasant from the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, with a monthly stopover in Cordoba. Direct flights from Buenos Aires have been ruled out for now due to opposition from the Islanders, who say Argentina has in the past used the direct connection to exert pressure by canceling flights at short notice.

Mondino met with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in New York last month and agreed to resume talks on issues including flights and joint coordination of visits by the families of Argentines who died in the 1982 war. Argentine President Javier Milei believes that further bilateral dialogue is essential to fulfill Argentina's constitutional mandate to recover the islands. In Mondino's view, dialogue between the two countries allows “resolving humanitarian issues”, but this does not imply renouncing Argentine sovereignty over the Islands.

“The Malvinas are and will always be Argentine. The mainland and the islands should have better connections,” Mondino also explained. If flights from Cordoba are resumed, the Islanders would benefit from closer links and “very good” universities and hospitals in Argentina. In addition, “there are many reasons to want to have the best possible relationship,” the minister noted.