Defense Minister, Jorge Taianajudged this Friday that the actions of the then deputy foreign minister of the government of Cambiemos, Carlos Foradori, would be “shameful” if what was revealed by the former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, Alan Duncan, was verified, but he warned that What was truly “serious and negative” about the Foradori-Duncan pact was that it only reflected “British interest” in relation to the Malvinas Islands.
“You always have to give a benefit of the doubt about the truth of the statements of the British. They do not always tell the truth, so we can give that benefit,” said Taiana, about what Duncan wrote in his memoir, in which stated that the then deputy foreign minister of the Mauricio Macri administration “was drunk” when an agreement was signed to lift Argentine sanctions on British companies operating illegally in the waters surrounding the Malvinas.
All in all, the Defense Minister made it clear that beyond this episode, which if true would be “shameful”, What mattered were the “negative” conditions that the joint statement signed by the deputy foreign ministers on September 13, 2016 imposed the sovereign rights of Argentina over the archipelago and its natural resources.
“What I have no doubt about is that this pact -that common press statement to give it the strict name it has-, in the conditions in which it was given, is not beneficial to the national interest. It has been negative,” Taiana evaluated in statements to the press made after leading the traditional act of reading the Order of Sailing of the 50th instruction voyage of the frigate ARA Libertad at the Buenos Aires Naval Station.
The former foreign minister stressed that the so-called Foradori-Duncan agreement -which, strictly speaking, It was a joint statement that never passed through Congress national interest – “it certainly does not reflect the national interest, reflects British interest and reproduces almost verbatim the letter that the then Prime Minister (of the United Kingdom) Theresa May sent to President (Mauricio) Macri as thanks for his good wishes at the beginning of his administration.
In this regard, he recalled that, in that letter, May had warned the then Argentine president: “Such things must be done and a few days later we see that it appears in a joint statement.”
What was signed by Foradori in 2016 and endorsed by the then chancellor Susana Malcorra, and Macri himself implied in the facts the repeal of Argentine laws that applied (economic) sanctions to companies that act illegally in Malvinas authorized by the British government in hydrocarbon and fishing activities.
“That seems to me to be much more serious and more negative than any situation that Vice Chancellor Foradori may have had at that time and, if it were true, it would certainly be shameful”Tanya mused.
The episode revealed by Duncan in his memoirs exploded into scandal after it was broadcast last Tuesday on the British portal “Declassified UK”, under the title “The Argentine minister was drunk” and brought, among other consequences, the initiation of a summary investigation into the Foreign Ministry, ordered by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero.
The purpose of the summary investigation is to determine “possible breaches of the duties of a public official and of the provisions established in the organic law of the Foreign Service of the Nation No. 20957 in the signing of the Foradori-Duncan agreement” during Malcorra’s administration as chancellor of the Macri administration.
On the other hand, Taiana linked the new training trip undertaken by the frigate ARA Libertad through the seas of the world to reaffirm the sovereign rights of Argentina over the Malvinas Islands; claim South America as a zone of peace and repudiate the “disproportionate” British military presence in the archipelago.
“In the South American continent we live in a zone of peace, and that is a value that we want to highlight, we defend it and maintain it,” the national official remarked, adding: “We are proud of it and that is why we want the illegitimate occupation of part of our territory with a disproportionate military presence that acts provocatively” because “not only do the islands occupy us, but they also display their military might”.
In this sense, Taiana considered that the presence of “a ship (for the frigate ARA Libertad) with the Argentine flag and its crew it is also a reminder that part of our territory is illegally occupied by a foreign power that does not comply with the law, nor with the mandate of the United Nations and that is more shameful because it is a permanent member of the Security Council” of the UN.
“This is a country that has privileges granted for its role in the Second World War and that should honor that privileged situation and behave in accordance with the law and not violate the law, which is what the Kingdom does on a daily basis. Kingdom in relation to the Malvinas Islands”, concluded the head of the Defense portfolio.
