While the relationship between the UK and Argentina is changing, the UK commitment to the people and sovereignty of the Falklands is unchanging, assured Prime Minister Theresa May in her Christmas speech to the Falklands.
The governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom reached an understanding to establish a second commercial air link to the islands, the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) confirmed on Tuesday followed by an official statement of the embassy of Argentina in the United Kingdom.
Argentina's Human Rights Secretariat announced on Tuesday that the remains of another Argentine unknown combatant, buried in the Falkland Islands have been identified making him the 102nd successful case. Corporal Mateo Antonio Sbert, was born in the province of Buenos Aires in 1949, and fell on 31 May 1982, during the South Atlantic conflict, in combat against British commandos at Top Malo House. He belonged to the Engineers Corps and was a Geographic Service graduate.
Britain's foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt told Parliament that the Falkland Islands will remain part of the UK for years to come despite Argentina's plans, after Brexit, to enhance dialogue with the Islanders and hopefully with a positive result for its claim over the Malvinas.
Twenty years ago, this month, one of Argentina's then leading political analysts and journalist publicly admitted the Falkland Islands belong to the Islanders. Mariano Grondona had been invited to the Islands by the Legislative Council and during a gathering with locals said the famous quote, “The Falkland Islands belong to you, the Islanders”.
The Argentine foreign ministry and Navy have denied any incident in the South Atlantic involving ARA Puerto Deseado, a naval hydrographic research vessel, which allegedly on September 2, came close to Falkland Islands waters, and was first reported by an Islands' site hi.Sutton.com.
Foreign minister Jorge Faurie reiterated before the United Nations Decolonization Committee or C24, that Argentina wishes to establish a dialogue with the UK to solve the Malvinas Islands dispute, and underlined he believed that “favorable conditions” for such a scenario have been created and are advancing.
Alejandro Jacobo Betts, Argentine citizen, born as Alexander Jacob Betts in the Falkland Islands, where he lived with a family until the end of the 1982 conflict, has been delisted from the Argentine delegation to this year's United Nations Decolonization Committee or C24 meeting scheduled for this month in New York.
Gauchos in Malvinas is the title of the book launched at the recent Buenos Aires Book show which is mainly a collection of water colors by William Dale, painted in 1852 when he spent time in the Falkland Islands. He was the son of John Pownall Dale, at the time General Manager of the Falkland Islands Company, and his paintings are considered a unique and only testimony of the gauchos in the Falklands.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is expected next week in Argentina for a G20 ministerial meeting and, according to Buenos Aires media, normally well informed, he is scheduled to attend a homage to the fallen in the South Atlantic conflict. This would take place in the framework of the new constructive positive turn for Argentine/UK bilateral relations, which includes cooperation in several fields.