The elected government of the Falkland Islands announced that a new era has opened Islands with the inaugural Second Flight from São Paulo, Brazil, touching down this Wednesday afternoon at Mount Pleasant Airport.
Argentine federal judge Luis Rodriguez ratified on Tuesday the green light for Latam's flight, beginning this Wednesday, linking Sao Paulo in Brazil and Cordoba with the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, after throwing out a request to suspend the link.
When dealing with the Malvinas issue, and its people, Argentina must stick to its diplomatic milestones and not feel attracted to push or take advantage of the UK which seems bogged in Brexit, or further isolated by the recent trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, argues Fernando Petrella, a deputy foreign minister with Guido Di Tella, ex-ambassador before the United Nations and currently head of the Argentine Foreign Service Institute.
Martin Ezequiel Dinatale, a member of Argentine news agency Infobae staff, sent Falklands' lawmaker MLA Roger Spinks a questionnaire on current and future relations between the peoples of Argentina and the Falklands, particularly since the announced latest agreement for a second commercial air link this time between the Islands and Brazil with a stopover at Cordoba, second largest Argentine city.
* MLA Elsby anticipates the public will be engaged on the final proposal. A final decision on where in Argentina a second commercial flight from the Falklands to a third country in the region will land “has yet to be made,” assured Member of Legislative Assembly Barry Elsby on Thursday.
The Falkland Islands government announcement that it has chosen Latam as preferred operator to provide a second commercial flight between the Islands and the continent, with a stopover once a month in Argentina, did not come without a reaction from the Argentine government.
The UK Government position is unchanged: only the Falkland Islanders have the right to determine their own political and economic future, stated Phillip Hammond in Buenos Aires where he attended a two-day G20 ministers meeting.
Argentina foreign minister Jorge Faurie has written a long column, (full tabloid page) in Buenos Aires daily Clarin, under the heading of “Intelligent Insertion” describing motives and objectives of the country's foreign policy under president Mauricio Macri, driven by the principle of an intelligent insertion in the international scenario. The final commitment of Macri's administration is reducing poverty and improving Argentines' life quality.
The British Embassy in Argentina has selected 21 project bids submitted by government agencies and civil society organizations which will award almost 10 million pesos worth of funding during the second half of 2017. The initiative follows on the spirit of the 2016 September Joint Statement.
Two Falklands lawmakers, MLA Mike Summers and MLA Phyl Rendell, will represent the Islands government as part of the British delegation at meetings with Argentina in London next Monday and Tuesday. According to a release from the Islands' government the principal item to be addressed is a second flight from South America to the Falklands that was agreed in a September Joint Statement between the UK and Argentina.