From Monday's Globe and Mail (*)
The Falkland Islands, a windswept archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, are a British Overseas Territory, and have been since 1833. The 3,000 inhabitants of this Island are proud to be British subjects, and no amount of Argentine huffing or puffing will change that.
By Thomas Harding, The Telegraph Defense Correspondent. The following article referred to the major naval incident of the Falklands’ conflict was published Monday 26 December. Top secret papers are set to prove that the warship ARA Belgrano was heading into the Falkland's exclusion zone when it was sunk in May 1982, and not heading back to port as the Argentines claimed.
Many Members of Parliament and in the Lords, from all parties, are totally committed to standing up for the Falkland Islands and rebutting the actions of Argentina, according to Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell and Secretary of the Falkland Islands Group in Westminster. He added people must know the true facts and intentions behind Argentina’s actions.
The President of the Spanish Association of Marine Fishing Officers (Aetinape), José Manuel Muniz, has asked the new Spanish government to get involved and act against the pressure placed on Falklands-flagged vessels by the Argentines, according to an article in the Galician newspaper Faro de Vigo, which examined the Spanish reaction to the ban on the entry of Falklands flagged vessels to Mercosur ports.
China ratified support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands. The message was delivered last week by Chinese President Hu Jintao's special envoy Jiang Shusheng and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and is part of the reciprocal policy in support of Taiwan as a province of China.
In a piece published last week in London daily The Guardian, and referred to the recent Mercosur support for Argentina in the Falkland Islands dispute, Richard Gott argues that a new scenario has emerged with South America growing in strength, increasingly united and no longer looking to Europe for support and advice which means a different framework for the Falkland Islands s sovereignty dispute.
MercoPress wishes a happy holiday season to all its readers.
Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro spoke Friday on the phone with Foreign secretary William Hague for the first time since the Falklands/Malvinas’ flagged vessels controversy, but both sides apparently could only agree that the situation remains stalled according to brief statements
The recent visit of the tall-ship Europa to Stanley harbour and its current cruise around South Georgia brings back memories of a by-gone era, the days of sail and tall ships, exploration and the Cape Horn trade-routes.
Mercosur latest decision to bar all Falkland Islands flagged vessels from entering its ports is “more symbolic” than anything else because a change of flag is enough, according to Uruguay’s Ports Authority, ANP President Alberto Díaz.