The case of Malvinas is a chapter in our history that is still open. The British seizure of January 3, 1833 had usurped Argentina’s sovereignty over the territory that undoubtedly belongs to our country. Claims before the United Nations Decolonization Committee have been a constant of every government. This, without a doubt, is the most important cause of our foreign policy.

Re-establish diplomatic relations with Britain, in 1990 during the reign of Carlos Saúl Menembring some news. Under the umbrella of sovereignty claims, during that decade progress was made in a series of agreements for the conservation of fisheries and hydrocarbon resources. Perhaps the most promising is the one signed in 1995 between Foreign Ministers Guido Di Tella and Malcolm Rifkind on cooperation in activities off the coast in the Southwest Atlantic.

At the same time, Di Tella launched a controversial policy of seduction of islanders, which included the December 1993 shipment of several Pingus cartoon videocassettes. In 1996 it was the turn of a set of copies of “The Little Prince”, by Antoine Saint Exupéry, in English, along with the most famous phrase from the text: “What is important is invisible to the eye”. In 1997 the prize was a book on the history of Patagonia, written in English. In 1998, it was the turn of the famous Winnie-the-Pooh children’s storybook, which reached 600 Kelper families.

FISHERIES AND HYDROCARBON: UNILATERAL ACTION ENGLAND

However, failing to adhere to this spirit of dialogue, the British unilaterally expanded their seizure of the marine space around the Malvinas. In particular, between 1987 and 1993, they decided to expand the “exclusive economic zone” around the island to a total of 551,000 km². For its part, the island government has begun to issue fishing permits in those waters. It is estimated that this income currently represents 40% of the GDP of the islands. According to expert analysis, due to the extraction of fishery resources in the waters around the Malvinas, Argentina has lost between 63,000 and 148,000 million dollars in the last four decades, at an average of 200,000 tons per year.

Given this situation and the UK’s failure to fulfill their commitments, In March 2007, the government of Néstor Kirchner notified London of the Argentine government’s decision to terminate the 1995 agreement on activities in the Southwest Atlantic..

The situation was exacerbated by the arrival, in February 2010, of the “Ocean Guardian” platform to search for oil 100 km north of the Malvinas Islands. The Argentine government accused the UK of “plundering the non-renewable natural resources of our country.” Correspondingly, Congress approved legislation that sanctioned foreign oil companies that had concessions in the waters adjacent to the islands.

In March 2013, meanwhile, the island government’s so-called referendum, was rejected by Argentina, where, according to data released by the Kelper government, 99.8% voted in favor of keeping the territory under British sovereignty. Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the nature of the consultation under International Law and pointed out that “the UK has no right to seek to change the legal status of the territory, even under the guise of a hypothetical referendum.”

FROM G-20 TO IDENTIFICATION OF THE ARTENTION PEOPLE WHO FALL IN MALVINAS

Macri’s government has attempted a coy rapprochement with Britain, starting with talks held in September 2016 between Undersecretary of State Carlos Foradori and his British counterpart Alan Duncan. In November 2018, in the framework of the G-20 Summit, then-President Mauricio Macri received Prime Minister Theresa May in Buenos Aires, with whom he held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the forum’s official meetings.

In recent years, a fact that has raised great hopes in Fallen’s relatives in Malvinas has been the process of identification, based on DNA tests, of the remains of Argentine soldiers buried in Darwin’s cemetery. The initiative has been promoted by British Colonel Geoffrey Cardozo and former Argentine fighter Julio Aro. Both were nominated in 2020 for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On a diplomatic level, Argentina has in recent years gained the support of Mercosur and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) for its claims to Britain. It also has the support of groups that are very important on the international scene, such as China’s G-77+, which brings developing countries together. y, year after year, Argentina reiterates its claim before the United Nations for Britain to return to the negotiating table, so far to no avail.

CONTINUE READING: