Argentina pulls out of pact with UK on Falklands
Thursday, 2 March 2023
By The Brussels Times with Belga
Argentina is backtracking on a compromise reached in 2016 with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands.
After a meeting with his British counterpart, James Cleverly, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero announced that his country was withdrawing from the so-called Foradori-Duncan Pact.
The Argentinian Government wants to renegotiate the sovereignty of the Falklands, also known as the Malvinas Islands. To this end, it is proposing a meeting with the British at the UN headquarters in New York.
The Foradori-Duncan Pact regulates gas and oil extraction as well as shipping and fishing around the archipelago. The current government in Buenos Aires believes its predecessor made too many concessions to London under the pact.
Las Islas Malvinas, as the territory is known in Argentina, have been under British control since 1833. War broke out in 1982 when Argentina invaded them. A series of defeats suffered by the South Americans led to a ceasefire 72 days later.
However, Buenos Aires continues to lay claim over the territory, which lies some 600 kilometres from the Argentine coast and 15,000 kilometres from the British Isles.
