Argentina reiterated this Thursday (2) its position of recovering the Falkland Islands through “peace, dialogue and diplomacy”, on the 42nd anniversary of the sinking of the cruiser ARA General Belgrano, attacked by the United Kingdom outside the military exclusion zone. 200 miles during the war between the two countries in 1982.
“Our position is clear: for us, the Falkland Islands are Argentine and, in this government, we will fight for peace, dialogue and diplomacy to recover them. Everything else is irrelevant. There is no discussion”, said the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, in his usual press conference at Casa Rosada, headquarters of the Executive Branch.
The armed conflict over the islands began on April 2, 1982 and ended on June 14 of the same year with the Argentine surrender and a death toll of 649 Argentines and 255 British people, in addition to three inhabitants of the Falklands.
Almost half (323) of the Argentine dead were on the warship sunk by the impact of two torpedoes from HMS Conqueror, a British Navy nuclear submarine.
“[Este é o] 42nd anniversary of the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano by the British invader during the Falklands War. This action caused the formal start of the war and 323 deaths guarding our Sea”, Argentine vice-president Victoria Villarruel wrote on her social networks this Thursday.
Since the end of the conflict, the South American country has claimed control of the Falklands, as well as the Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in the United Nations Decolonization Committee, through a peaceful solution.
“Today, the United Kingdom continues to ignore the obligation to resume bilateral dialogue with Argentina on the sovereignty of the islands. Furthermore, regrettably and unilaterally, it expanded its fishing zone and, therefore, its projection in Antarctica. I remember our dead and our unwavering demand for sovereignty,” added the vice president.
In late February, following a visit to the Falklands by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, the United Kingdom expanded the no-fishing zone around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
There are 166 thousand square kilometers that add to the 283 thousand square kilometers over which an exclusion already applied, after the British authorities forced the creation of a Maritime Protected Area in 2012. (With EFE Agency)
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