“The Queen is not aware that we are in the XXIst century and she follows the colonialist tradition of the United Kingdom”, claimed Argentine Senator Daniel Filmus, the first reaction to the Queen’s strong message in support of the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar right to determine their political futures.
Britain reaffirmed on Wednesday that it will ensure and protect the right to the Falkland Islanders and Gibraltarians to determine their political futures. The strong message was included in HM Queen Elizabeth traditional annual address to Parliament setting out the legislative program for the government of PM David Cameron.
Tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands will work more closely with Britain and other European countries to fight tax evasion, British finance minister George Osborne said.
Two Chevening scholars from British Overseas Territories visited the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and were impressed at the number of staff focused on the Falklands and their knowledge and proactive stance towards the Islands.
All countries should accept the results of the Falklands’ referendum and support the Islanders as they continue to develop their home and their economy, said on Tuesday Foreign Secretary William Hague following on the overwhelming weekend vote to remain as a British Overseas Territory.
Only 15% of Argentines think Falkland Islanders should have a say in their own future, and a quarter still believe that the islands will one day be governed from Buenos Aires, but in the UK, 88% of British people said the Islanders should have a say on who ruled them.
We hope, by voting overwhelmingly in favour of remaining British, the rest of the world will understand and support our right to self-determination. The message is clear in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, in all of Argentina that is calling for sovereignty negotiations with the United Kingdom.
Argentina blasted the UK over the coming Falkland Islands referendum claiming it is acting with ‘ill faith’ trying to introduce elements of distortion by changing the definition of the dispute under international law, despite all the pronouncements of the world community.
Next Sunday and Monday Falkland Islanders will be voting in a referendum and will be asked a very simple and direct question: “Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?”
The Globe and Mail (*) editorial published Sunday, March - As a country that with some justice prides itself as a global beacon for democracy, the United States should abandon its equivocation over the status of the Falkland Islands and agree to throw its considerable weight behind the winner of the referendum asking Islanders whether they wish to remain a UK overseas territory.