“Falkland Islands don’t want to join Argentina”

The bellicose attempts by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to challenge the Island’s sovereignty, and to engage in efforts to disrupt shipping links to the Islands, are without justification. British Prime Minister David Cameron is right to reject such challenges, and to reiterate the UK firm commitment to the Islands’ prosperity and security.
 

Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner may gain support at home for exploiting feelings among some Argentines that they have a rightful claim to the Islands, known there as Las Malvinas. Argentina has successfully pressured members in the Mercosur trading bloc, including Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, to ban legitimate Falkland Islands flagged vessels from using their ports. There is even unsporting talk that the Argentine Olympic team will deface their national uniforms by including a political statement about the Falkland Islands on them.
 

The issue, however, is not a colonial one. It is the right of a country to determine its own future. And this right to self-determination cannot be ignored, wished, or shouted away. Falklanders are unlikely to change their minds about their loyalty. The endeavour by Argentina’s military junta to invade the islands in April, 1982 ended in a humiliating defeat, and the withdrawal of Argentina forces. It was widely seen as an unsuccessful attempt by General Leopoldo Galtieri, leader of the military government, to divert attention away from the nation’s economic difficulties.
 

Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner too faces a difficult year, with rising inflation, declining competitiveness, and accusations of curtailing the media’s freedom of expression, following the government’s move to seize control of the paper used to produce newspaper. Surely the country would be better off addressing these very challenges, than engaging in belligerent behaviour towards its tiny, friendly, and admirably independent neighbour.

(*) The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star. The Globe and Mail is widely described as Canada's English language newspaper of record.
 

 

A view of Stanley where almost two thirds of the Falklands population lives
 

Source: MercoPress — South Atlantic News Agency