|
Argies' military threat raises fears over Falklands
Hard to find a place to file this under.
The plans threaten to inflame tensions between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, which the South American nation still considers to be its sovereign territory despite losing a war in 1982. The Argies are having their internal problems, an Argentine friend has told me, so.....maybe rattling their sabers may divert attention from within. Argentinian forces were driven from the islands by a British naval task force after three months of fighting and the loss of hundreds of lives. The victory proved decisive in the re-election in 1983 of Margaret Thatcher. "This world is no longer a world divided by ideology," Mrs Fernandez said. "It is more complex, and it is necessary to defend our natural resources, our Antarctica, our water." Coming from a different tack this time. The Argentine president compared the plan to Brazil using its soldiers to protect natural resources in the Amazon rainforest. The proposals come as Britain considers whether formally to claim exploration rights to extended areas of the sea bed around the Falklands, South Georgia and the British Antarctic Territory. Moves are also being made by Argentina, Australia, China, France, New Zealand and Norway to boost their presence and lay claim to waters that could yield oil. Antarctica, protected under a 1959 treaty allowing only scientific research, is the only continent that remains free of military forces. The Argentine president's comments are the first to suggest the use of troops to protect a country's interests. Well, Britain's military forces are not the same as they were in 1982. The proposals come as Mrs Fernandez faces growing opposition at home after winning power last year in a landslide victory to succeed her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president. Her ties to the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez have strained relations with the United States and a sluggish economy has seen widespread protests against her policies. Plus people going ape-sh*t in Argentina over corruption in the government. Britain has plans to claim more than 350,000 square miles of sea bed under a United Nations convention that allows rights to areas that are a continuation of their territory's continental shelf. However, a Foreign Office spokesman last night stressed that Britain had not made a formal submission to the UN "although we reserve the right to do so". The deadline is May next year. The situation in part mirrors a rush for territorial rights at the North Pole, also believed to contain vast energy reserves. Russia sparked the race last August by symbolically placing a flag on the sea bed, claiming huge tracts of the region for itself. In turn, Canada announced it would build military training bases in the region and step up patrols of shipping lanes. Denmark and the United States have followed suit since. The Russian army said last month that it was prepared to send winter warfare forces to the region to protect its interests. Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-07-11 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=243983 |