UN British ambassador warned Argentina on Friday that Britain would “robustly” defend the Falkland Islands if necessary, but added that his country remained open to bilateral talks with Buenos Aires on any issue except the Islands' sovereignty.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope that Argentina and the United Kingdom can avoid escalating their dispute over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and resolve their differences through dialogue.
The Argentine government sees with good eyes that a Uruguayan trade delegation travelled to the Falklands/Malvinas in spite of the ‘dialectic conflict’ with the UK over the sovereignty of the Islands, said the Argentine ambassador in Montevideo, Dante Dovena.
Stability, governance and democratic safeguard were among the issues addressed by US Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson and Argentina’s Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman during her first day of activity in Buenos Aires.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez gave instructions for the formal complaint before the United Nations accusing the United Kingdom of ‘militarization’ of the South Atlantic and Malvinas Islands be presented on Friday, according to a release from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
United States insisted that the Falklands/Malvinas dispute is a ‘bilateral’ issue between Argentina and the UK and again called on Buenos Aires and London to solve the issue peacefully, through dialogue.
One hundred members of the Chilean population living in the Falkland Islands were joined by 50 to 60 Islanders in a show of unity against the possibility that the weekly Lan Chile flight between Santiago and the Falklands might be discontinued at the request of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez.
Mercosur from a real point of view exits, but institutionally it’s a “chewing gum” claimed Uruguayan president Jose Mujica who anticipated he would demand from the block’s partners that Uruguay be allowed to sign bilateral trade agreements with third parties.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday no one should doubt his determination to keep the Falkland Islands British as he dismissed President Cristina Fernández announced complaint to the United Nations.
Santiago media reports increasing disappointment in the Chilean government and private sector with the latest batch of Argentine measures to restrict imports and want the issue ‘top of the agenda’ when President Cristina Fernandez visits Chile at the end of the month.