
Both hosts and participants underlined the success of the recent Join Ministerial Council 2925 held in London and which brings together UK ministers and officials with Overseas Territories’ representatives.

For first time UK government and all our Overseas Territories unite behind a joint ambitious and actionable biodiversity strategy. This strategy is published as leaders from the UK Overseas Territories and UK Ministers gathered in London for the Joint Ministerial Council. UK’s Overseas Territories are home to 94% of the UK’s unique species and a quarter of the world’s penguins. In total over 1,800 endemic species live in the Overseas Territories.

Stephen Doughty, Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which includes Overseas Territories has stated that illicit finance, corruption, and kleptocracy pose a direct threat to the UK’s national security, economic resilience, and the integrity of the global financial system.
![At the Joint Ministerial Council [JMC] in November 2024, the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena committed to join Montserrat and Gibraltar in implementing fully public registers by April.](/data/cache/noticias/103900/260x165/e9a62464-2f79-4323-ad7e-547b3739d30a.jpg)
British Members or Parliament continued to discuss the implementation of publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers in the overseas territories, to which the Falkland Islands and St Helena committed to join by April 2025..

The position of Overseas Territories, on the United Nations list of Non-Self--Governing Territories was recently discussed in British Parliament. The issue was brought up by Conservative Member of Parliament Blake Stephenson on January 30th session.

“We are absolutely resolutely committed to the sovereignty and self-determination of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands,” said Stephen Doughty MP and Minister of State for the Overseas Territories on a question from a fellow Labour MP, Portsmouth North, Amanda Martin during the Wednesday Parliament session.

The British Minister for the Overseas Territories and elected Leaders and Representatives of the UK Overseas Territories, met as the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) on 19 to 21 November 2024 in London.

Roger Spink, member of the democratically elected Legislative Assembly from the Falkland Islands, is taking part in the annual Joint Ministerial Council at the Foreign Office in London, next to representatives from twelve other Overseas Territories.

The lastest update from the Falkland Islands Maritime Authority, Tuesday 23 July, 2024 approximately 15:00 hours Falklands time, said that on Monday 22 July 2024, the Maritime Authority received information that the fishing vessel Argos Georgia, with 27 persons onboard, was taking on water and requesting assistance some 200 miles east of Stanley.

During the recent visit of members of the Falklands All-Party Parliamentary Group, a controversial and thorny issue came up at a media conference when Penguin News asked whether the Falklands and the effect on the Islands, were being considered amidst the requirement for British Overseas Territories (BOTs) to establish registers of beneficial ownership (*).