Bloody Argentinian politicians at it again!
Look, Ms Kirchner… The Falklands have never been inhabited by Argentinians and are approximately 300 miles from mainland Argentina (250 miles from Tierra del Fuego, a part of land which isn’t physically joined to Argentina, and therefore, using Kirchner’s logic, should probably belong to Chile). Who discovered the islands may be debatable, but the candidates are Britain, Spain, and Portugal – not Argentina – and the first human settlement was French.
The proximity of a blob of land to another is irrelevant in geopolitical terms, and who owned said blob of land at a specific time in history is largely irrelevant to modern times. I refer the honourable lady to a map. Presumably, you want us to hand Jersey and Guernsey back to the French, right? Or perhaps you fancy having a go at the Middle East too, given that Judaism pre-dates Islam by over two thousand years.
In cases of inhabited territories, self-determination by inhabitants is the only fair way to resolve these disputes. There’s an upcoming Falklands referendum in March, and I think we know how that’s going to go.
Listen to what a Falklands government spokesman said:
“We are not a colony – our relationship with the United Kingdom is by choice… Unlike the government of Argentina, the United Kingdom respects the right of our people to determine our own affairs, a right that is enshrined in the UN Charter and which is ignored by Argentina.”
As he states, the islands are not a colony. Britain has defensive responsibility for the islands, but they are otherwise self-governing, like all the other British Overseas Territories.
What would be sensible would be an agreement based on mutually beneficial exploitation of potential nearby resources, which may be why you’re kicking up this stink again. But this will only come about through dialogue, and is not likely to happen while you indulge in sabre-rattling for domestic populist political purposes.
There is no ill-will towards Argentinian people in Britain itself. I don’t think that there’s any love-lost for Argentinian politicians on the part of the Falkland Islanders though. Either way, you won’t make any friends on the Falklands or in Britain with nonsense assertions of territorial rights over the Falkland Islands.
So in the interests of diplomacy and any chance of future co-operation between all the sides involved in this squabble, please stop it.
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