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| Caribbean-Latin America | ||
| Argentina scraps Falklands oil deal | ||
| 2007-03-28 | ||
| Relations between Britain and Argentina took a turn for the worse today after Buenos Aires ended an agreement for oil exploration near the Falkland Islands. Argentina's decision came just days before the 25th anniversary of the war for the South Atlantic islands.
The Argentinian foreign minister, Jorge Taiana, said the move was taken as Britain had unilaterally floated public bid oil deals in the area. Mr Taiana said he had informed Britain's ambassador in Argentina, John Hughes, about the decision, adding "the Argentine decision brings an end ... to an instrument the United Kingdom sought to use to justify its illegitimate and unilateral action to explore for resources that belong to Argentines." The 1995 agreement was reached under British prime minister John Major and Argentine president Carlos Menem, who worked hard to improve relations between the two countries. The first Argentinian head of state to visit Britain since the Falklands war, he laid a wreath at the Falklands memorial in St Paul's cathedral. President Nestor Kirchner, who came into office in 2003, has adopted a different tack, calling on Britain to discuss the issue of sovereignty of the islands, populated by 2,900 people of mostly British ancestry. Last year, Argentina criticised a British decision extending fishing licenses from one to 25 years in waters around the Falkland Islands, saying it disregarded Argentina's territorial claims. "Argentina is not opposed to cooperating with the United Kingdom, but only if this contributes to renewing dialogue over sovereignty," Mr Taiana said. Argentina invaded the islands - called Las Malvinas by Argentineans - located some 300 miles off its South Atlantic coast - on April 2 1982. Seven hundred Argentinian and 255 British troops died in the 10-week conflict before Argentina's forces surrendered. Argentina claims it inherited the islands from Spain before they were occupied by Britain in 1833.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 I doubt Britain would fight if the Argies took the islands a second time. Argentina should just pass an eminent domain law and buy out the land at their decided upon price. Pretend it's all legal, as if they are the governing body responsible. The usual suspects will support them against Imperialist squatters. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-03-28 17:20 |
| #2 The Argies see that Blairirstan is ball-less |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-03-28 15:54 |
| #1 The Argies should also be reminded that when the British invaded the Falklands, they may have only killed about 700, but they captured 11,300. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-03-28 15:51 |