The Argentine Foreign Minister will claim at the UN for the rights over the Malvinas Islands

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero will lead the Argentine delegation in New York on Thursday that will demand at the UN that the United Kingdom resume negotiations with Argentina for the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Argentine delegation will claim before the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization that the United Kingdom resume negotiations with the South American country to find “a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute” over the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime spaces, the statement explained.

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Argentina maintains a dispute with the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands.

The two countries fought a war that began on April 2, 1982, with the landing of Argentine troops in the archipelago, and ended on June 14 of that year with their surrender to British forces.

During the conflict, 255 British, three islanders and 649 Argentines died.

The war reaffirmed the power that the United Kingdom has had in this South Atlantic enclave since 1833, when British forces occupied the Falklands and evicted its inhabitants and the Argentine authorities.

Since then, Argentina has never ceased to claim its sovereign rights over the archipelago and, in 1965, managed to get the United Nations General Assembly to call on both countries to enter into negotiations “without delay” to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.

In fact, there were only negotiations between 1966 and 1982, without any agreement and that were cut short by the war.

The Argentine foreign minister travels to New York with a delegation made up of legislators from the ruling party and the opposition; officials from the Argentine Foreign Ministry; the governor of the southern province of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, among others.

Also part of the delegation for the first time are members of the National Council for Affairs Relating to the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime and insular spaces, an organization created in 2020 in Argentina.

“The national position on the Malvinas Question is presented to the international community as a State policy that transcends political flags, reaffirming the legitimate Argentine rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces, and calling the United Kingdom to resume negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the dispute, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and its Special Committee on Decolonization,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

According to the Argentine Foreign Ministry, there are still 17 colonial situations pending resolution that are dealt with by the Special Committee on Decolonization and of that total, eleven situations involve the United Kingdom and, among them, the question of the Malvinas Islands.

As part of his visit to New York on June 22 and 23, Cafiero will also hold meetings with representatives of other member states and will participate in a meeting at the Council of the Americas.

With information from Efe