This Friday the Malvinas Forum, chapter Uruguay will be celebrating its first anniversary and is expected to announce a statement strongly rejecting the coming referendum in the Falklands on the Islands political status which is scheduled for March 10/11. The meeting will be held in Maldonado where it was originally launched.
Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman said on Thursday that the British government’s position on the Falklands/Malvinas Islands issue “smells too much like petroleum”, revealing that UK’s biggest interest in keeping the invaded archipelago is due to the potential oil findings.
An Argentine columnist has found two great virtues: audacity and tolerance in Foreign Minister Hector Timerman current incursion in London to lobby and argue in favour of the most intransigent of Argentina’s position on the Falklands’ dispute.
There is no such thing as Falkland Islanders, the Argentine Foreign minister Hector Timerman insisted during a press conference in London on Wednesday, claiming they are British citizens living in disputed islands. He claimed the United Nations only acknowledges two parties in the territorial dispute: UK and Argentina.
European personalities from politics, culture and academia meeting in London for a two-day event expressed their support for Argentina’s claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands and signed a declaration calling on the UK to resume discussions for a peaceful and definitive solution to the ongoing dispute.
The Argentine government refusal to speak to the Falkland Islands representatives is ‘unacceptable” in this day and age of modern democracies. Nevertheless the two Falklands lawmakers currently in London have said they would be very happy to meet with Foreign Minister Hector Timerman at any time this week to have “a rational conversation as one human being to another”.
British Member of Parliament Alun Cairns, and a member of the All Party Group on Argentina, said he was offended by some the comments made by Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman during their meeting to discuss the Falklands issue on Tuesday in the House of Commons.
Falkland Islands lawmakers met on Wednesday morning with Foreign Secretary William Hague and regretted the absence of Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman but also understand Argentina’s deep concern with “our (March) referendum, which is why they spend so much time dismissing it”.
Foreign Minister Timerman can go to bed tonight and dream of owning the Falklands in twenty years if he wishes, but there’s not much reality to it, pointed out a Falklands’ lawmaker reacting to the Argentine minister’s statements on Tuesday to the UK media.
Argentine authorities backed away from a recent ultimatum for Brazilian mining giant Vale to submit a new timeline for its 6 billion dollars Rio Colorado potash mine, giving the company more time to find a solution for the imperiled project.