According to Reuters local time on March 2, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said on the same day that the Argentine government once again asked the British government to restart negotiations on the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands (Falklands Islands, known by the United Kingdom as the "Falkland Islands").
The demand for the resumption of negotiations is the latest move by Argentina to make long-standing claims to the Falklands, which also involved the 1982 Falklands War.
Screenshot of the Reuters report
On the same day, Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero tweeted that when he attended the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi, India, he had informed British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in person that Argentina had decided to terminate the Foradori-Duncan Pact signed between the two countries.
In response, Cleverley retweeted Cafiero's tweet and wrote: "The Falkland Islands belong to the United Kingdom, and the islanders have the right to determine their own future - they choose (the island) to continue to be a British Overseas Self-Governing Territory." ”
Screenshot of Cafiro and Cleverley Twitter
The Malvinas Islands had been the subject of a territorial dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom for 200 years. In April 1982, a war broke out between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Falklands Islands, which ended in British victory. However, Argentina has not given up its claim to sovereignty over the Falklands, and Britain has refused to negotiate with Argentina.
In April last year, on the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, Argentine Foreign Minister Cafiro published an article in the British newspaper The Guardian calling on Argentina and Britain to settle the dispute through negotiations. He said it was "naïve" to pretend that the dispute did not exist or that the dispute would not create obstacles to bilateral relations.
On the Falklands issue, Ambassador Geng Shuang, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, delivered a speech at the Ad Hoc Committee on Africa of the General Assembly last June, stressing that in the 21st century, the days when Western colonialists could do whatever they wanted are gone. China's position on the Falklands issue is consistent and firmly supports Argentina's legitimate claim to sovereignty over the Falklands.
Last year also marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Argentina, and on February 6 last year, the two countries issued the Joint Statement on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Argentina. Article 4 of the statement states that the Arab side reaffirms its adherence to the one-China principle and that China reiterates its support for the demand of the Arab side for the full exercise of sovereignty over the question of the Malvinas Islands and the resumption of negotiations as soon as possible with a view to the peaceful settlement of the dispute in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions.
Falklands War infographic
In fact, in 2016, Argentina and the United Kingdom signed the Foradori-Duncan Pact, the first positive statement on the South Atlantic and the Falklands since 1999, agreeing to work in the coming months to lift restrictions on the islands' oil, gas industry, shipping and fishing industries, and to establish further air links between the Falklands and third countries.
However, the agreement has also caused a lot of controversy in Argentina. The deal was slammed as "shameful" by Argentine opposition parties, after Argentina staunchly opposed British exploration of resources in the South Atlantic and strongly opposed any new flights to the Falklands from third countries.
Daniel Filmus, Argentina's former Falklands affairs minister, denounced the Foradorry-Duncan accords as "one of the most pernicious incidents" in terms of claims to national interests, particularly sovereignty over the Falklands. He said the agreement ceded British interests, allowed Britain to exploit Argentina's natural resources in the region and lowered Argentina's claim to the Falklands.
In addition, Alan Duncan, the former British minister for European and American affairs, unilaterally revealed in his autobiography in 2021 that on September 12, 2016, he and Mark Kent, then the British ambassador to Argentina, met with Carlos Foradori, Argentina's then deputy foreign minister, at the British Embassy to discuss the "Foradorry-Duncan Agreement" that would later be signed.
That evening, everyone discussed while drinking in the wine cellar inside the British Embassy, and shook hands in the early hours of the next morning to agree to the outline of the agreement. The day after the negotiations, Foradori called Kent and admitted he was drunk last night and couldn't remember what he had admitted, while Kent reminded him of what he agreed to, saying "negotiations are still on track." Since then, although Foradori has denied the description in Duncan's autobiography, he has been caught up in the controversy of "getting drunk" during the negotiations and has been investigated, and even the agreement has been dubbed the "drunken agreement" in Argentina.
Argentine military representatives commemorate the Falklands War Memorial Square in Buenos Aires on April 2, 2014. Photo from Xinhuanet
Zhou Mocao, a lecturer at the University of Information Engineering, once analyzed that the diplomatic and military game between Britain and Argentina over the sovereignty dispute over the Falklands is protracted, reflecting the inestimable strategic value of the island to both sides. In the context of the new situation, new strategic variables are also emerging.
Falklands guard the important sea passages connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, such as the Strait of Magellan, the Drake Strait, Cape Horn, etc., which can deter the South American continent to the west and the Antarctic Peninsula to the south, and is a military bridgehead in the South Atlantic region. The waters around the Falklands are rich in fishery resources and rich in oil and gas. Among them, oil reserves are as high as 60 billion barrels, which is equivalent to the total oil reserves of the British North Sea oil field, which can be described as a resource treasure trove in the South Atlantic region.
For Britain, the strategic value of the Falklands has long gone beyond a purely military defense function, and has increasingly become an important means for it to spread the legacy of colonialism, protect its so-called "overseas territories" in the South Atlantic, and ensure its Antarctic participation. For Argentina, seeking to restore sovereignty over Tsushima is both a popular aspiration and an arduous and enduring political mission of successive governments. In the foreseeable future, the game between the two sides around the sovereignty of the Falklands will continue for a long time.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.