Why argentina want falklands

In , we entered a joint agreement with Argentina over hydrocarbons exploration: in the Argentine Government tore this up. In , the Falkland Islands signed a joint agreement with Argentina to co-operate in a number of areas, including sharing of information on joint fish stocks. Only the Falkland Islands has upheld its side of this agreement; the Argentine Government has unilaterally reneged on nearly every point. More recent actions such as attempts to ban our ships from entering South American ports, Decree which denies innocent passage of vessels transiting Argentine waters, the banning of charter flights in support of our tourism industry, laws threatening sanctions against companies involved in peaceful commerce in both countries, all point to a desire by Argentina to frustrate our international trade and attempt to isolate us.

The Falkland Islanders are a peaceful, hard-working and resilient people. Our society is thriving and forward-looking. All we ask is to be left in peace to choose our own future, and responsibly develop our home for our children and generations to come. Follow us on Twitter! Relationship with Argentina. Relationship with Argentina The current Argentine administration has made the Argentine claim to our home a key part of its foreign policy agenda in recent years.

Please get in touch by email by clicking on this link. Related Gallery Camp Education. Community School Secondary. Fire Service. For their part, the Falkland Islands' government responded to Ms Fernandez' letter with a statement saying: "We are not a colony - our relationship with the United Kingdom is by choice.

And to drive the point home, they decided to hold a referendum on March in which islanders will be asked whether they wish to continue as a British Overseas Territory.

However, the Argentine government thinks that the islanders should have no voice in two-way discussions between Britain and Argentina over the future of the islands.

When I ask Senator Daniel Filmus, a member of the government committee on Las Malvinas, about the referendum he turns on me angrily:. What is the point of asking these people if they want to be British? It is like asking an Argentine if he wants to be Argentine! It's a waste of time. There is no doubt that the wealth contained in the seas surrounding the Falklands opens a new dimension in the long-running debate. There were strong commercial links between the islands and Argentina before the Peronist government headed by Ms Fernandez' late husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, gained power in Ailing economy.

But both Mr Kirchner, and now his wife, who succeeded him as president in , refuse to deal with an authority they will not recognise and those links have been cut. Premier Oil is just one of the companies about to pump oil out of the South Atlantic and there could be huge opportunities for service industries based in Argentina, just miles km away. The refusal to work with the Falkland Islands could leave Argentina in danger of missing out on such rewards.

We have here a political conflict and for Argentina the Malvinas is not economic, it is political. Despite all the disputes over the islands, historians are agreed that the fateful decision to invade in made by Argentina's then-leader General Leopoldo Galtieri was an attempt to gain popular support for a military dictatorship that, by the early s, was morally and economically bankrupt. The sight of the unemployed scavenging through rubbish to sell on to recycling companies is a common one.

And strikes and demonstrations are frequent. This week teachers have been demonstrating in Buenos Aires calling for pay rises to match inflation. In , the British settled West Falkland but left in for economic reasons. Spain abandoned its settlement in In Argentina declared its independence from Spain and in proclaimed its sovereignty over the Falklands. In , a British force expelled the remaining Argentine officials and began a military occupation.

In , a British lieutenant governor was appointed, and by the s a British community of some 1, people on the islands was self-supporting. In , the wind-blown Falkland Islands were collectively granted colonial status. For the next 90 years, life on the Falklands remained much unchanged, despite persistent diplomatic efforts by Argentina to regain control of the islands.

In , the Falkland Islanders voted in a referendum to remain British, and it seemed unlikely that the Falklands would ever revert to Argentine rule. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the military junta led by Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri was suffering criticism for its oppressive rule and economic management, and planned the Falklands invasion as a means of promoting patriotic feeling and propping up its regime. Under orders from their commanders, the Argentine troops inflicted no British casualties, despite suffering losses to their own units.

Nevertheless, Britain was outraged, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher assembled a naval task force of 30 warships to retake the islands. As Britain is 8, miles from the Falklands, it took several weeks for the British warships to arrive. After several weeks of fighting, the large Argentine garrison at Stanley surrendered on June 14, effectively ending the conflict.