Argentine wine exports to the UK have rocketed by 25% in value and 12% in volume in the first three months of the year. This put the UK back ahead of Brazil as Argentina’s third largest market worldwide, and the US and Canada, and represents the largest gains for over four years.
UK reassured support for Gibraltar following Wednesday night’s incident when several Spanish Guardia Civil vessels and a helicopter were involved in a tense standoff with the Royal Gibraltar Police, the Gibraltar Defence Police and the Royal Navy while the Spanish trawlers tried to cast nets in the Rock’s bay.
Britain fell deeper into recession than initially thought in the first quarter of 2012 due to a slump in construction output, raising the likelihood that the Bank will opt to inject more stimuli to protect the economy from the Euro zone debt crisis.
Britain’s men’s hockey team will play their opening match of the London Olympics against Argentina at 1900 BST on 30 July, one of whose players caused a controversy this month with a video filmed in the disputed Falklands/Malvinas islands.
Argentine ambassador in UK Alicia Castro rejects having mentioned during a conference in London the “possibility of a constitutional reform” to incorporate the results in the event of a sovereignty negotiation over the disputed Falklands/Malvinas Islands.
Vice President Amado Boudou called for a ‘concrete reply’ to Argentina’s request for the International Red Cross to collaborate with the identification of the combatants fallen during the Falkland Islands conflict in 1982 and whose remains are buried at the cemetery in Darwin.
The slow economic recovery is in sight across Europe, the European Commission said on Saturday, with the UK in line for 1.7% growth next year compared with an EU average of 1.3%.
The Spanish Government formally protested its “displeasure and discomfort” over the state visit of the Earl of Wessex to Gibraltar next month. But Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Garcia-Margallo nonetheless confirmed that the Spanish Queen Sofia will attend the May 18, 60th anniversary of the Coronation celebration in London, but “in a private capacity”.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague praised Chile during a meeting in London with his peer Alfredo Moreno to discuss a range of issues on which the two countries can work together.
Defence Minister Arturo Puricelli once again claimed Argentine sovereignty over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands at the Unasur headquarters in Ecuador and warned that “the usurpation of the Islands affects all of the South American nations” plus insisting on the military/civilian ration in the Islands.