The national government today expressed its “strong rejection” of the carrying out of new military maneuvers in the Malvinas Islands by the United Kingdom, which, it considered, constitutes “an unjustified show of force” in “illegitimately occupied” Argentine territory and a “deliberate departure from the calls of numerous UN resolutions and other international organizations”.
In a statement issued this followingnoon by the Foreign Ministry, the Executive expressed a new protest once morest the British military exercises in the archipelago, which will take place from today until April 29.
“The Argentine Republic rejects in the strongest terms the carrying out of these military maneuvers in illegitimately occupied Argentine territory,” the San Martín Palace said in a statement.
The official document also indicates that the new military exercises “constitute an unjustified show of force and a deliberate departure from the calls of the numerous resolutions of the United Nations and other international organizations, which urge both Argentina and the United Kingdom to resume negotiations, in order to find a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute that involves both countries in the Question of the Malvinas Islands”.
“The Argentine government has learned that between April 18 and 29, the United Kingdom is carrying out, once once more, military exercises in the Malvinas Islands, involving, among others, British forces stationed in the Malvinas Islands, belonging to the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment,” the statement said.
According to official information, “the illegitimate Defense Force of the Islands, together with forces of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force” will also participate in the maneuvers, which, it details, “are part of the military deployment of illegal occupation of the United Kingdom in the Malvinas Islands.
According to a statement from the British military contingent in the Falkland Islands (BFSAI), these exercises are carried out to “demonstrate the ability of BFSAI personnel to coordinate and carry out resources for a large-scale exercise,” says the portfolio headed by the chancellor Santiago Cafiero.
In the statement, the Foreign Ministry stresses that the British military presence on the islands “categorically opposes the permanent will of the Argentine Republic to resolve the dispute by peaceful means, in accordance with international law and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations” .
In this sense, it maintains that “in particular, the persistence of the United Kingdom in carrying out military exercises in the South Atlantic specifically contravenes resolution 31/49 of the United Nations General Assembly, which urges both parties (Argentina and the United Kingdom Kingdom) to refrain from adopting unilateral decisions that entail the introduction of modifications in the situation while the Islands are going through the negotiation process recommended by it”.
Likewise, it states that “the military presence also contradicts General Assembly resolution 41/11 (Zone of Peace and Cooperation in the South Atlantic) which, among other provisions, urges the states of all other regions, especially those important militarily states, to scrupulously respect the South Atlantic region as a zone of peace and cooperation, in particular by reducing and eventually eliminating their military presence in that region”.
“The Argentine Government once once more reaffirms its sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces that form an integral part of the national territory of the Argentine Republic, which, being illegitimately occupied by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are the object of a sovereignty dispute recognized by the United Nations through resolution 2065 (XX) and subsequent resolutions of the General Assembly, as well as other international organizations and forums,” the official document underlines.
Finally, it indicates that “in accordance with the aforementioned resolutions, the Argentine Government reiterates that this is a sovereignty dispute that must be resolved bilaterally between both countries, and reaffirms its willingness to resume negotiations.”
