The recent statement entitled ‘Progress made towards establishing a second commercial Falkland Islands air link’ released by the Falkland Islands Government has met with a mixed reception in the Islands. While some have expressed favor others have reservations and questions such as the current letter from Eric M Goss MBE publishes in the Penguin News.
The United Kingdom and Argentina presented on Monday to the Paraguayan foreign ministry a joint letter requesting assistance in contacting airlines in the country that could be interested in establishing a new scheduled air service to and from the Falkland Islands.
Representatives from Argentina and the United Kingdom formally delivered on Monday, to the Uruguayan foreign minister a letter jointly issued by the two governments requesting assistance in contacting local airlines and inviting them to communicate their interest in establishing a new weekly scheduled air service to and from the Falkland Islands.
Two Falklands lawmakers, MLA Mike Summers and MLA Phyl Rendell, will represent the Islands government as part of the British delegation at meetings with Argentina in London next Monday and Tuesday. According to a release from the Islands' government the principal item to be addressed is a second flight from South America to the Falklands that was agreed in a September Joint Statement between the UK and Argentina.
The scheduled Saturday LAN flight, LA992 departing from Mount Pleasant Airport in the Falkland Islands to Chile with a call in Argentina, was delayed for an hour and a half after a total of fourteen live rounds and 95 empty casings were found in the hold and hand luggage of several passengers.
There can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless and until such time as the Islanders so wish was the official reply from the UK to remarks made by Argentine president Cristina Fernandez during her speech on Tuesday before the UN General Assembly.
Increasing common infrastructure projects such as tunnels and border crossings between Chile and Argentina will be the main motive of this week’s presidential summit between Sebastian Piñera and Cristina Fernandez.
FOR the Falklands to be short of bananas as a result of Argentina’s bully-boy blockade and trade restrictions is understandable. For Argentina to run out of bananas you’d think would be impossible in a sub-continent which grows millions of them. But a few weeks ago, they had no bananas in Buenos Aires shops. Only the incompetent Argentines could achieve the impossible. It’s not just bananas they are slipping up on.
The apparent change in Argentine policy towards the Falkland Islands by offering three direct flights to the Islands from Buenos Aires instead of cutting the air link with Chile, as had been anticipated, was described by Chilean diplomatic sources as “an attempt to collect international support and look less mean”.
By John Fowler (*) - I handed the family's passports to a rather stern-looking official behind a desk, while my wife and mother-in-law passed through into the departure lounge with our daughter, who was just a few months short of her first birthday. Along with the passports, I also handed over three white identity cards. These were issued by the country through which we were in transit on our way to holidays in Britain from our home in the Falkland Islands.