Last Friday it was announced that Keith Padgett, Financial Director for the Falkland Islands Government, has been appointed interim Chief Executive of the Islands until a replacement is appointed for outgoing CE, Tim Thorogood.
The Argentina press announced on Sunday the construction of an airport in the middle of the Atlantic Island of St Helena, a British Overseas Territory and which would become a crucial hopping point for the Falklands/UK air bridge.
The British government acknowledged on Friday the naming of the new Argentine ambassador to the United Kingdom, and stated that they hoped the coverage of the long-vacant position will permit “the strengthening of cooperation” between the two countries.
The Argentine chapter of Greenpeace suggested President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, is ‘ill-advised’ when she claimed on Wednesday no environmental group has criticized what is “going on in Malvinas” in direct reference to oil exploration and fisheries in the Falklands.
A new round of exchanges on the Falklands/Malvinas dispute took place on Thursday when an Argentine Senate Committee unanimously voted in favour of debating a declaration bill “strongly repudiating” British Prime Minister David Cameron’s “colonialist” statements, while a British minister accused Argentina of “sabre-rattling.”
Falklands’ oil industry sources said the round of oil exploration began in 2010 with the “Ocean Guardian” rig and just concluded, involving Rockhopper Exploration and Desire Petroleum, was “hugely successful” with several major oil and gas discoveries.
Conservative backbench MP Andrew Rosindell has called for the Isle of Man and other Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, including the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands to be represented in Westminster.
Fully recovered from the thyroidectomy and with her irony sharp as ever, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, resumed office on Wednesday and in an hour plus colloquial speech in Casa Rosada spent a good twenty minutes talking about Malvinas, colonialism and promised more rigour in the campaign to have the UK sit and discuss Falklands sovereignty.
The UK will not negotiate the Falklands/Malvinas Islands sovereignty “until the Islander so wish to” said on Wednesday a spokesperson from the Foreign Office.
The Falkland Islands urged the EU Commission to ensure that the rights of citizens of Overseas Counties and Territories are not compromised in relations with countries and regional bodies.