Leaving aside the current diplomatic situation with the UK because of the Uruguayan government decision to bar Malvinas’ flagged vessels from local ports, “we have a very good dialogue with Great Britain” said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro.
From Monday's Globe and Mail (*)
The Falkland Islands, a windswept archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, are a British Overseas Territory, and have been since 1833. The 3,000 inhabitants of this Island are proud to be British subjects, and no amount of Argentine huffing or puffing will change that.
Three cruise vessels with over 5.000 passengers spent Christmas at Uruguay’s international seaside resort Punta del Este on the Atlantic, according to the local port authority, Carlos Ferreira.
In a piece published last week in London daily The Guardian, and referred to the recent Mercosur support for Argentina in the Falkland Islands dispute, Richard Gott argues that a new scenario has emerged with South America growing in strength, increasingly united and no longer looking to Europe for support and advice which means a different framework for the Falkland Islands s sovereignty dispute.
MercoPress wishes a happy holiday season to all its readers.
Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro spoke Friday on the phone with Foreign secretary William Hague for the first time since the Falklands/Malvinas’ flagged vessels controversy, but both sides apparently could only agree that the situation remains stalled according to brief statements
Mercosur latest decision to bar all Falkland Islands flagged vessels from entering its ports is “more symbolic” than anything else because a change of flag is enough, according to Uruguay’s Ports Authority, ANP President Alberto Díaz.
Following the article published in “The Independent” dated 22nd December 2011, entitled “Time to talk about the Falklands”, the people of the Falkland Islands would like to make the following response.
By John Fowler for Penguin News, Stanley, Falkland Islands - My first contact with Latin America came in 1971, when my wife and I spent four days in Montevideo while waiting for a ship to carry us to the Falkland Islands. We received such amazing hospitality and kindness from the Uruguayans we met then, that this small, but perfectly-formed country has had a place in my heart ever since.
One day after the summit in Montevideo, Uruguay criticized the functioning of Mercosur, particularly the lack of cooperation, trade barriers and impediments and delays to essential infrastructure works for the group.