Laura Bashraheel Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Argentine Ambassador Jaime Sergio Cerda opened a seminar on Malvinas Islands, entitled “The Malvinas Islands Question,” to explain the issue to the world in an attempt to bring the British government to the negotiating table for bilateral talks. The Malvinas Islands are part of the Argentine territory, the ambassador said, adding, the first independent Argentinian government in 1810 considered the islands an integral part of the territory inherited from Spain. In 1965, the United Nations recognized the existence of a sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom and invited both countries to negotiate a peaceful solution to the dispute. In 2012, they are still waiting to start those negotiations, he said. In this context, the Foreign Office in Buenos Aires has asked Argentine embassies and missions around the world to organize academic events and seminars to explain their position. Malvinas Islands, called Malvinas Islas in Spanish and Falkland Islands in English, are considered by Argentina as occupied territory while Britain treats them as part of its overseas territories. “The idea of having support groups everywhere in the world started last year. The first support group started in Mexico and then our authorities thought it was a good idea to have not only the government involved in this but also citizens, “ said Cerda. “We get NGOs and the civil societies who are concerned about environmental issues and we believe when we have tension between two countries it is not only the task of the government but the people as a whole,” added Cerda. The authorities of Saudi Arabia and all Arab countries supported Argentina's request for bilateral negotiations in the last summit of South American and Arab countries in Lima, Peru, back in October 2012. “We got in the final declaration a clear paragraph asking for bilateral negotiations on the issue of Malvinas. Just to say it is not the first time that Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, have supported bilateral talks, but they supported it as well in the first summit in 2006 and 2009 in Doha,” Cerda added. The UK refuses any bilateral discussions but that was not always the case. In the 1970s the British were ready for talks but after the 1982 war they changed position and decided not to hold any talks. “We hope, with the support of the United Nations and Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, to resume the talks about Malvinas, which is 13,000 km away from England and only 400 km from Argentina,” Cerda explained.
