This week UK made official the fact that Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard MP was in the Falkland Islands to meet service personal, members of the Islands elected government, and also attend a Remembrance Day Service.
”The UK Government will always protect and promote the Falkland Islanders’ right of self-determination and only they can decide their future. We want a good relationship with Argentina, but have been very clear that we will never negotiate away the Islanders’ democratic rights. My right honorable Friend the Foreign Secretary (Lord David Cameron) reassured the Islanders about our enduring commitment during his welcome visit to the Falkland Islands last month,“ David Rutley, Under Secretary for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, replied to questions from Parliament members on Tuesday, who asked ”What steps he is taking to uphold the Falkland Islanders right to self determination?.
The Falkland Islands’ status as a British overseas territory has nothing to do with imperial gestures, and everything to do with the wishes of the population, writes Dr. Nigel Haywood, in response to the article by Simon Jenkins, published in The Guardian and MercoPress a week ago.
The Falkland Islands are British, that is nonnegotiable and undeniable emphasized UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, adding that 99,8% of Islanders voted in 2013 to remain British and we will always defend their right to self-determination and UK's sovereignty.
United Kingdom statement delivered by Mungo Woodifield, UK Spokesperson to the UN, at the UN Fourth Committee on Decolonization. Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered.
Days after India extended support to Argentina's campaign to restart international negotiations on the Falkland Islands sovereignty claim in the South Atlantic, a British official on Monday said there was “no doubt” about the United Kingdom's sovereignty over the Islands.
The Argentine government made official the appointment of Daniel Filmus as head of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Secretary, which depends on the ministry of foreign affairs and worship.
Argentine president-elect Alberto Fernandez revealed that last week he received a call from UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, and despite the ideological affinity, the incoming president said that Argentina under his administration would, always, claim the Falklands/Malvinas Islands sovereignty.
Falkland Islands elected lawmaker MLA Roger Spink in his Tuesday speech before the UN Committee on decolonization called on the Argentine representatives to leave aside colonial and conquering wishes over the Islands and start behaving as a 21st-century member of the world community, respecting democratic rights and living and working in harmony with regional neighbours.
In an official release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Argentina recalled that 186 years ago, on 3 January 1833, “UK military forces illegally occupied and usurped the Malvinas Islands and adjoining maritime spaces in the South Atlantic”.