Argentina today strongly rejected a new British military deployment in the Malvinas Islands and reiterated its willingness to resume negotiations with the United Kingdom to resolve the sovereignty conflict over that territory.
In a note, the Foreign Ministry of this southern nation denounced the recent installation of the Sky Saber anti-aircraft system in the archipelago, a new-generation ground-based defense system that replaces Rapier-type missiles and triples their range.
It is a new and 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, to achieve a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute, the government said.
Likewise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship stressed that the persistence of the United Kingdom in expanding its military armament in the South Atlantic specifically contravenes UN resolution 31/49.
Said provision urges both parties to refrain from adopting unilateral decisions that entail the introduction of modifications in the situation while the Islands go through the negotiation process recommended by it.
Argentina warned that the military presence also contradicts General Assembly resolution 41/11 which, among other provisions, “urges the States of all other regions, especially the militarily important States, to scrupulously respect the South Atlantic region as a zone of peace and cooperation.
This South American country considered that the alleged defensive status of the British military base in the South Atlantic is not only totally unjustified, but also represents a threat to the entire area.
In the face of these new acts of hostility, Argentina continues to reaffirm its peaceful vocation and its permanent and constant will to resume negotiations with the United Kingdom in order to reach a definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute, the statement concludes.
Argentina and the United Kingdom maintain a dispute over this territory usurped from this southern nation, which led to an armed conflict, with a balance of 650 national combatants and 255 British soldiers killed in 1982.
