Africa’s fifty four countries joined South America “in recognizing the legitimate sovereignty rights of Argentina over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the adjoining maritime spaces”, announced the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a communiqué in reference to the so called Declaration of Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea.
British tabloid The Sunday Times indicated on Sunday that the Iran-Argentina accord on the investigation of the AMIA bombing case could also hide a joint missile development project. Furthermore, the paper assured “Argentina is developing missile technology that could threaten the Falkland Islands.”
Foreign Secretary William Hague will discuss the United States' position on the Falkland Islands with Secretary of State John Kerry following reports that Washington will not recognise the result of next month's referendum.
A Russian cruise ship Lyubov Orlova, at one time a frequent summer visitor to the Falklands, abandoned and adrift in the North Atlantic has been located about 2.400 kilometres off the west coast of Ireland.
The Falkland Islands government at a public meeting defended their position of not including in the annual budget what they described as ‘windfalls’ from fishing and oil and instead adding the ‘exceptional” excess revenue to the Consolidated Fund.
Member of Legislative Assembly Ian Hansen will assume responsibility for the Falklands’ government Minerals portfolio after MLA Barry Elsby relinquished the post due to a conflict of interest. The brief release from Gilbert House adds that MLA Hansen has prior experience in the Minerals portfolio adding that MLA Jan Cheek will continue as the second portfolio holder.
The Foreign Office said that the UK is striving to ensure that all fishing undertaken in the Southern Ocean is carefully managed and sustainable and that the current FCO focus is supporting international work to establish a network of Southern Ocean Marine Protected Areas.
The 43rd British Islands and Mediterranean Region (BIMR) Annual Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), held in the Falkland Islands on the 12th and 13th February 2013, was described as both fascinating and provoking by delegates.
The fluid relation between Pinochet’s regime in Chile and the UK following Margaret Thatcher’s victory in 1979 is not nothing new, however declassified British documents of the time to which BBC World had access, reveal the intensity of those links in defence and political issues, including in March/April 1982 when the Argentine military invasion of the Falkland Islands.
By Fernando Petrella (*) - The following article by an Argentine former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs was published as a column in the Buenos Aires media. The following reproduction in English is not necessarily literal but tries keep to its spirit as much as possible.