The United Kingdom said that “won’t negotiate the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands”
Argentina, February 8, 2012
The controversy after the act of Cristina Kirchner yesterday did not wait to appear. The UK insisted today that the sovereignty of the Falklands is British and justified its military presence in the islands.
“Our position on this matter has not changed in all this time and is quite clear. We’ll only negotiate the sovereignty of the islands if its people want to negotiate and that’s not happening right now” said a spokesman for the British Mission to the UN .
The British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant had sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, in which he notes that “the defensive military presence in the UK in the islands only exists in order to defend the rights and freedoms of Islanders to determine their own political, social and economic decisions”.
In another sense, an official of the Foreign Ministry said that “the 3000 Islanders are British by choice and free to decide their future” and concluded “there will be no negotiations unless the Falkland Islanders want to”.