Argentina's military threat raises fears over Falklands

[Marcus Marulus]

Argentina's military threat raises fears over Falklands

By Graeme Baker

Last Updated: 11:54PM BST 08/07/2008

Argentina raised the prospect of posting military forces in the Antarctic region yesterday, with the announcement of plans to use troops to defend its interests.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner told defence chiefs that Argentina must be prepared to assert its sovereignty and protect its natural resources, as nations compete to claim areas of the region believed to be rich in oil.

The plans threaten to inflame tensions between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, which the South American nation still considers to be its sovereign territory despite losing a war in 1982.

Argentinian forces were driven from the islands by a British naval task force after three months of fighting and the loss of hundreds of lives. The victory proved decisive in the re-election in 1983 of Margaret Thatcher.

"This world is no longer a world divided by ideology," Mrs Fernández said. "It is more complex, and it is necessary to defend our natural resources, our Antarctica, our water."

The Argentine president compared the plan to Brazil using its soldiers to protect natural resources in the Amazon rainforest.

The proposals come as Britain considers whether formally to claim exploration rights to extended areas of the sea bed around the Falklands, South Georgia and the British Antarctic Territory.

Moves are also being made by Argentina, Australia, China, France, New Zealand and Norway to boost their presence and lay claim to waters that could yield oil. Antarctica, protected under a 1959 treaty allowing only scientific research, is the only continent that remains free of military forces.

The Argentine president's comments are the first to suggest the use of troops to protect a country's interests.

The proposals come as Mrs Fernández faces growing opposition at home after winning power last year in a landslide victory to succeed her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president.

Her ties to the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez have strained relations with the United States and a sluggish economy has seen widespread protests against her policies.

Britain has plans to claim more than 350,000 square miles of sea bed under a United Nations convention that allows rights to areas that are a continuation of their territory's continental shelf.

However, a Foreign Office spokesman last night stressed that Britain had not made a formal submission to the UN "although we reserve the right to do so". The deadline is May next year.

The situation in part mirrors a rush for territorial rights at the North Pole, also believed to contain vast energy reserves. Russia sparked the race last August by symbolically placing a flag on the sea bed, claiming huge tracts of the region for itself.

In turn, Canada announced it would build military training bases in the region and step up patrols of shipping lanes. Denmark and the United States have followed suit since.

The Russian army said last month that it was prepared to send winter warfare forces to the region to protect its interests.

[source]

[Señor Malo]

Actually this New President is doing many things up side down.
One of her first measures was to put heavy export taxes on agricultural products (when they were supposed to be subsided!!!!)
On the other side they had sold a huge Gold Mine in the south of the country to an American mining corp but the duties they will have to pay for all the gold they will export abroad will be no more than 2% ...

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Truth-Finder

Actually this New President is doing many things up side down.
One of her first measures was to put heavy export taxes on agricultural products (when they were supposed to be subsided!!!!)
On the other side they had sold a huge Gold Mine in the south of the country to an American mining corp but the duties they will have to pay for all the gold they will export abroad will be no more than 2% ...

Once you told me Nestor Kirchner had put many things right in Argentina. Could it be said now his wife is ruining it? And it is kind of weird to have wife of the former president as following in his husband's former position. Peron II?

[Strengthandhonour]

I guess what this woman is doing is nothing bad.
She is pretty much just saying that we better get our act together and to not assume that the world will be nice to us because before we know it the Brits will be claiming a lot of our territory.

[Señor Malo]

Originally Posted by Marulus

Once you told me Nestor Kirchner had put many things right in Argentina. Could it be said now his wife is ruining it? And it is kind of weird to have wife of the former president as following in his husband's former position. Peron II?

Nestor Kirchner did many things right
I would not say that she is doing everything wrong but some of her decisions deceive me a bite.

About what she says of displaying military forces on Antarctica, I do not know luch what to say about
On first thoughts I kidna disagreeded.
But after reading Strengthandhonour 's comment, I'm changing my mind, specially after reading this sentence from the article that I had previously overed:


[quote ]Britain has plans to claim more than 350,000 square miles of sea bed under a United Nations convention that allows rights to areas that are a continuation of their territory's continental shelf.?[/quote]