Argentina pushed hard on Saturday for a new diplomatic offensive aimed at pressing Britain to negotiate the status of the disputed and potentially oil-rich Falkland Islands.
“Britain should sit down and have a dialogue about sovereignty to overcome this anachronistic colonial situation,” Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said from Mexico where he was preparing for a Rio Group summit.
Though the two countries went to war over the South Atlantic islands in 1982, with Britain affirming its control, Argentina still claims ownership of the archipelago, which has been held by Britain since 1833.
“Argentina will dialogue diplomatically and peacefully,” Taiana told the state news agency Telam ahead of the summit where Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will try to rally regional support for her stand on the islands.
Argentina says Britain is skirting UN resolutions calling for dialogue on the dispute. It says UN resolutions recognize the territorial dispute and urge dialogue to settle it.
Taiana is set to meet UN chief Ban-Ki moon Wednesday to encourage talks, Argentina’s UN envoy Jorge Arguello has said.
And Argentina’s president today will ask the Rio Group of regional allies at their meeting in Mexico to condemn oil exploration Britain has approved in the Falklands, Argentine media reported on Saturday citing unnamed government sources.
About 25 Latin American and Caribbean leaders will be at the gathering near Cancun. The Rio Group in the past has backed Argentina in its territorial claim. Using the islands’ Spanish name, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday addressed Britain saying: “Give the Malvinas back to the Argentine people.”
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in London on Friday he was “confident” diplomacy could resolve a standoff with Argentina on the Falklands, as islanders voiced disappointment at tensions over oil drilling.
“The diplomacy between us and Argentina is one that I think will be successful,” Brown said, insisting that Britain was acting within international law. “I think the work that’s being done will avoid any tension”.
Argentina and Britain engaged in a brief but bitter war in 1982 over the archipelago.
Argentina’s defeat resulted in the collapse of the military regime that ruled the country at the time, helping usher in a return to democracy.
The latest round of verbal skirmishes were triggered by Argentina’s decree that ships traveling through its waters to the Falklands — home to 3,000 islanders, 1,000 British soldiers and 500,000 sheep — require an Argentine permit.
According to Britain’s Geological Society, oil fields around the Falklands could produce up to 60 billion barrels of oil.
Argentina says that its “jurisdictional waters” are up to 200 nautical miles (370km) off its coast.
The Falkland Islands lie 450km from the Argentine coast, beyond the 200-nautical mile limit but within a continental shelf area that Argentina claimed before the UN last year.
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