Britain expressed its disappointment after Argentina’s withdrawal from a cooperation agreement on the Falkland Islands – the so-called Malvinas according to the Argentines – an archipelago whose sovereignty is claimed by the two countries.

Argentina’s Foreign Minister, Santiago Cafiero, tweeted that he informed his British counterpart, James Cleverley, about his country’s decision to end a cooperation agreement reached in 2016 with a commitment to improving cooperation on issues of mutual interest in the South Atlantic. He also called for talks between the two countries on sovereignty over the islands, a proposal rejected by London.

After the two Ministers met at the G20 summit in India, James Cleverly responded sharply on Twitter that the Falkland Islands are British and that its people, who have the right to decide their own future, have chosen to remain a British overseas territory.

Argentina’s withdrawal from the agreement is a disappointing decision, said David Rutley, the British Minister responsible for the Americas. Argentina has withdrawn from an agreement that brought solace to the families of those killed in the 1982 conflict.

The war between Britain and Argentina in 1982 lasted 74 days with more than 900 casualties: 649 Argentine and 255 British soldiers as well as three civilians.

Forty years later, if the Falklands War is an open wound for Argentina, for the British it is presented as a liberation that allowed the prosperity of these islands in the South Atlantic, located 400 km from the coast of Argentina and some 13,000 km from London.

For Argentina, the so-called Malvinas, inherited from the Spanish crown after the country’s independence, were occupied by British troops in 1833, while the governor and the Argentine settlers were then expelled to the mainland.

Britain claims that almost 100% of the 2,000 inhabitants of the archipelago, which it calls the Falklands, approved remaining under British control in a referendum in 2013.

This is London’s main argument for ignoring a 1965 UN resolution that referred to a dispute over the sovereignty of the islands and called on the two countries to negotiate.

Source: APA MPA

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