President Juan Manuel Santos revealed on Friday in London that Colombia has been cooperating with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, “since a long time”. Last June first the Colombian Executive announced that the Ministry of Defence was going to sign an agreement with NATO “to begin the process of becoming closer to NATO”.
Latinamerican countries expressed on Thursday their full support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas, during the 43 annual assembly of the Organization of American States taking place in Guatemala. Only Canada was against the OAS final declaration while the United States did not take position on the matter.
Lawmaker Jaime Trobo invited his peers in the Lower House to review the Uruguayan government’s position regarding the Malvinas Islands and without questioning Argentine sovereignty, establish close trade and human links with the Islanders, as in the past, eliminating the ‘sanitary ring’ imposed by the current Argentine government.
Argentine tourists have staged a British invasion, with record numbers flying in to the UK in the last year, according to an article by Matt Chorley published in the Daily Mail. The influx of more than 100.000 visitors, up more than a quarter year-on-year, comes despite renewed tensions between the two countries over the status of the Falkland Islands.
Fifteen members of the Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) visited Chile in mid-May as part of their study tour to Latin America. The visitors came from the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, India, Netherlands, Uganda, Turkey and Estonia.
The Falkland Islands are only asking the international community to support the fundamental human right of Falkland Islanders to choose their own form of government, to exercise their right to self determination, said lawmaker Mike Summers during his presentation at the United Nations Decolonization Committee (24) Caribbean regional seminar, in reference to the recent referendum held in the Islands, whose sovereignty is disputed by the UK and Argentina.
The British Government has no plans “at present” to extend British territorial waters around the Rock but does not rule out doing so in the future. The position was revealed in a statement by David Lidington, Britain’s Minister for Europe, in response to a question in the House of Commons.
A vaccine to protect sheep and cattle from a virus spread by midges has been approved by UK government vets. The virus, which emerged in the Netherlands and Germany in 2011, can lead to sheep and cattle having stillborn or deformed offspring.
UK conditioned a possible re-launching of agreements on hydrocarbons and fisheries in the South Atlantic to Argentina accepting ‘there will be no sovereignty negotiations’ regarding the Malvinas Islands and called for the Argentine government to respect the wishes of the Falkland Islanders.
Argentina questioned the UK after its negative vote at the United Nations General Assembly to place French Polynesia back on the UN list of non autonomous territories that should be decolonised Additionally Argentina renewed its claim over the Falkland Islands sovereignty and described the UK attitude, ‘colonial hypocrisy’.