Next week marks the 30th anniversary of the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentine forces which erupted into a full blown conflict with the UK that ended 74 days later with the complete unconditional surrender of the invading forces.
The Argentine Ambassador to the US, Jorge Argüello, assured on Wednesday that despite reactions to trade barriers put up this week by the US to Argentina, there was “nothing to worry about” regarding the relationship between the countries.
“Malvinas and the Spaniards (‘gallegos’) are always to blame” warned UK PM David Cameron to his peer Mariano Rajoy when they met in London over a month ago to talk bilateral issues and the growing irritation caused to both countries by Argentina with its claims over Falklands’ sovereignty and natural resources.
An Argentine extremist group is planning to ‘capture’ a vessel which was involved in the Falklands conflict and currently flies the Uruguayan flag and operates in the port of Montevideo, as an act of vindication ahead of the coming 30th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Islands.
Argentina has picked a diplomatic incident with Poland following on alleged coarse expressions from a top Argentine official towards members of the local Polish community in the north of the country, most of them farmers involved in growing ‘yerba mate’ the popular infusion tea of the region.
The US government said on Tuesday that their recent decision to suspend Argentina from the Generalized System of Preferences, GSP, program, which waives import duties on thousands of goods from developing countries “is a serious bump in the road”, but “should not come as much of a surprise.”
Six Nobel Peace Prize winners called for Britain to open talks with Argentina over the sovereignty of the Aflklands/Malvinas Islands, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the war between the two nations. The call came in the form of a letter directed to the UK's Prime Minister David Cameron.
President Cristina Fernández questioned US president Barack Obama’s recent decision to suspend trade benefits for Argentina, while complaining that “we can’t even manage to get one of our lemons to enter the US market.”
Amidst raising tensions between the Argentine government and Spain’s Repsol-YPF oil company, Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo warned on Tuesday that the administration led by President Cristina Fernández will take “all necessary measures to guarantee the country's energy self-supply”.
Britain has denied sending a nuclear-armed submarine to the South Atlantic amid rising tensions with Argentina over the Falklands and accused Argentina of “rattling cages in any way they can”.