Argentine Foreign Minister meets President of UN General Assembly on Falkland Islands

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Argentine Foreign Minister, Felipe Solá, met this Wednesday, June 23, with the president of the United Nations General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, in an attempt to broaden support in multilateral organizations for the resumption of negotiations between Argentina and the United Kingdom on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), according to a press release from the Argentine Foreign Ministry.

“We came in person to the UN to state that the United Kingdom must agree to establish dialogue on the Falklands question, following the mandate established and reiterated in numerous resolutions of this assembly and its Special Committee on Decolonization that will meet tomorrow, Thursday,” said Solá in the statement.

According to the statement, Argentina seeks to resume negotiations with the United Kingdom “to find a peaceful solution to the dispute regarding the Falkland Islands”.

Solá is in New York to participate this Thursday in a session of the UN Decolonization Committee regarding this issue.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and “given the global shortage of vaccines”, it was stated that Solá conveyed to Bozkir “the need to strengthen multilateralism and international cooperation”, while “reiterating Argentina’s support” for “the suspension of patent rights on vaccines and medical supplies essential to combat the pandemic.”

Solá and Bozkir also talked “about the negotiation of Argentina’s external debt” with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which amounts to about US$46 billion.

At the meeting, the foreign minister was accompanied by his chief of Cabinet, Guillermo Justo Chaves; the secretary for Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus; and the Argentine permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador María del Carmen Squeff.