08.03.2023
Buenos Aires decided to cancel the air service from Brazil following London’s refusal to fly over from the Argentine mainland.
Buenos Aires annulled on Tuesday (03.07.2023) the permission to London to carry out an air service from São Paulo to the disputed Falkland Islandswith a stopover in the Argentine city of Córdoba, due to the British rejection of planes flying from the Argentine mainland.
“This decision has been reached following presenting to the United Kingdom numerous initiatives to achieve greater connectivity between the Argentine mainland and the Malvinas Islands,” said the Foreign Ministry. it’s a statement in his web page.
The flights of the LATAM firm had been agreed by both countries in 2018, but Britain suspended them in 2020 for health reasons amid the coronavirus pandemic. A reaction from the United Kingdom to the decision of the Argentine government has not yet been known.
Last week Argentina ended a bilateral pact of 2016 on the islands. That decision was considered “disappointing” by the British authorities. That pact, according to Buenos Aires, made concessions to British interests regarding the exploitation of Argentine natural resources in the region and authorized air connections between the islands and third countries.
The sovereignty conflict in the South Atlantic archipelago dates back to 1833, when British troops invaded it and expelled settlers from Argentina.
The Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that “the British Government has prevented any real and concrete progress in the sense of allowing a direct flight from our mainland to the islands. Despite this, the Argentine Government hopes to be able to resume talks.”
The dictatorship of General Leopoldo Galtieri forcibly recovered the islands in 1982, but following a 74-day war it had to surrender, with a death toll of 649 Argentine and 255 British soldiers.
“In December 2021, the Argentine government formulated a proposal to the United Kingdom for two humanitarian flights with a flag line from the Argentine continental territory,” but London “rejected such a proposal,” said the Foreign Ministry.
A regular flight from the Chilean Punta Arenas to the Malvinas Islands, with a monthly stopover in the Argentine city of Rio Gallegos, was reestablished in July 2022 following being suspended due to a pandemic.
The talks on the connection with the Malvinas were interrupted by Buenos Aires in January “in the context provoked by the United Kingdom of incorporating Kosovar security forces into the existing military endowments in the Malvinas,” the Foreign Ministry said.
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