Argentina claimed at the CELAC summit in Chile that the UK has converted the Falkland Islands into one of the “most militarized territories in the world” with the sole purpose of exploiting the natural resources of the Islands and control access to Antarctica.
The reestablishment of a Falklands Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been announced by Peter Hayes, Director of the Overseas Territories, on Wednesday.
Argentina is strongly committed with multilateralism and trusts in the UN to reach a fair, peaceful and long lasting solution to the sovereignty dispute in the Malvinas issue, said Ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval during her Friday credentials presentation ceremony with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, GSGSSI, announced a vast Marine Protected Areas around the Island in February and it is likely there is more protection to come that could affect krill fishing and long-lining, reports the September edition of the South Georgia newsletter.
Funds generated by the sale of fish confiscated from a vessel that had been poaching in the South Georgia and South Sandwich Island’s Fishery Zone (SGFZ) are being put to good use to fight illegal fishing elsewhere in the Southern Ocean.
For consular purposes the Uruguayan Foreign Affairs ministry refers to the Malvinas Islands, which are claimed by Argentina with the support of Mercosur members, as the “dependent territory” of the “Islas Falklands”.
Argentina made a technical presentation last week before the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, CLCS, on the exterior limits of the Argentine shelf in which the claimed territories of the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and ‘Argentine Antarctica’ were included.
The July edition of the South Georgia Newsletter recalls a major British military and political event in the South Atlantic has been largely overlooked by the region’s history books. A Royal Navy task force, codenamed Operation Journeyman, was deployed to the waters around South Georgia and the Falklands in 1977 following the occupation of Southern Thule in the South Sandwich Islands by 50 Argentine “scientists”.
Mercosur agreed at the Mendoza summit to exchange information on ships and other “naval artefacts” involved in hydrocarbons activities with routes that include the Falklands/Malvinas Islands over which Argentina claims sovereignty.
One of the worlds largest Marine Protected Areas (MPA) has been created around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, waters that are amongst the most productive in the Southern Ocean. The SGSSI MPA, which was declared on February 27th, covers more than 1 million km². The report is from the South Georgia Newsletter, February edition.