Today the Falklands are a prosperous community of just over 3000 people who fully support themselves in all areas bar defence (which costs 0.5% of the UK’s defence budget). After the war in 1982, Westminster provided the support the islands needed to develop. The economy, once dominated by wool, is now based around fishing, agriculture and tourism. Soon oil and gas extraction may join the list. It is not a coincidence that hydrocarbon exploration (with reserves worth £115bn in taxes and royalties) has coincided with increasingly punitive actions and hysterical rhetoric from Buenos Aires.
Argentina continues to claim the islands as part of its own territory. In her speech during Argentine commemorations of the Falklands war on the second of April, the Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner called the islands ‘a colonialist enclave’. These commemorations took place in the city of Ushuaia, the city Argentina has named as the capital of the Falklands despite the city being 482 miles away. The ‘recovery’ of the Falklands has even been written into the Argentine constitution as a “permanent and unwavering goal of the Argentine people”, and recent polls suggest that the overwhelming majority of Argentines view it as such.
The measures Argentina has taken to force the islanders to cede sovereignty (such as the banning of charter flights across Argentina’s airspace) have been counter-productive. As John Foster, the Group Managing Director of Falklands Islands Holdings told Vision “it has made them [the islanders] even more determined and angry with Argentina” though “the recent denial of access to cruise ships which had called into Stanley (The Falklands capital) to Ushuaia (the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province), if it forces operators to stop calling at Stanley could be very damaging as many islanders make a nice living in the summer from offering trips, tours and gifts to the still 40,000 annual cruise ship visitors”. However this policy has also caused heavy monetary losses and opposition in Ushuaia itself.
Currently Argentina is aiming at companies involved in oil and gas production in the Falklands, recently threatening them with legal action if they are involved in ‘illegal’ (without Argentine permission) drilling in the Falklands, even doing as little as providing banking services for extraction companies. Fortunately the development of this sector requires no Argentine support. As Foster explained “even if Argentina was the friendliest country in the world there would be very little need for any production company to look to the mainland for logistical or technical support. Oil would be collected in huge tethered floating tankers and decanted straight into tankers for shipment to distant refineries; it would not go to shore. A gas discovery would require a giant liquifying plant on shore and a pipeline and arguably this might be cheaper to build if South American infrastructure was available but this is not essential”. Additionally the Falklands Islands Government is seeking to build a deep water port in support of the developing hydrocarbon industry.
As for the recent actions announced by Argentina against companies involved in Falklands oil exploration Foster told Vision that “If legal action only took place in Argentina then it would be less problematic but if Brazil recognised the validity of Argentina’s claims to damages then the impact would be more far reaching. The UK government has been working overtime on maintaining good links with Brazil and it seems unlikely that Brazil would alienate large international companies and damage herself just to placate her annoying little neighbour to the South and her pet, mad cap claims”.
Despite the best efforts of the Argentine government the Falklands has maintained links to the rest of South America. There is a regular flight each Saturday to Chile (which Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has threatened to stop but has so far been unable to) and a private cargo flight from Uruguay is being established. However the once twice-weekly supply boat run to Chile has been disrupted by Argentine pressure and the Falkland Islanders “wait to see if this once very active link will re-establish itself”.
For the moment the measures of the Argentine government seem to have been largely ineffectual and mainly aimed at pacifying a domestic audience. Regional support for Argentina’s claim has been lukewarm at best; when Falklands flagged vessels were banned from entering Mercosur ports, Mercosur members quickly pointed out that there is no such ban against boats flying the red ensign (which all Falklands flagged vessels have the right to do) and neither would there ever be. The Argentine attempt to drum up support at the United Nations over the UK’s militarisation of the South Atlantic proved to be a farce, with photos of Britain’s advanced military radar proving to be of a radar station operated by the University of Leicester to study the ionosphere.
There is little international interest in the conflict; however in terms of at least nominal support, while Argentina has Mercosur, Britain has the EU and the Commonwealth, both of which recognise the Falklands as British territory. The UN has not published any resolutions on the Falklands since 1988, which called on the two parties to resolve the conflict peacefully (essentially a plea for neither country to start a war).
Additionally Argentine trade policies are alienating much of the international community; the USA, the EU and a number of other countries, including Chile, Peru and Mexico (who support Argentine sovereignty over the islands) are considering WTO sanctions against Argentina for its protectionist practices. As a coherent campaign to gain the Falklands, Argentine policy makes no sense. However, the policy does make sense when we consider that independent reports put inflation at almost 30%, figures the government has made it illegal to report, insisting that inflation remains at roughly 10%. Argentina is heading for economic collapse, with capital fleeing the country and increasing import restrictions; the Falklands issue make a nice distraction.
While currently there seems to be little threat to the sovereignty and rights of the Falkland Islanders, I feel we should not forget our fellow citizens who live at the edge of our territory and who everyday demonstrate very British virtues of resilience and ingenuity. Attempts by the Argentine government to harm them and their way of life must be resisted. This is not just because they are British but because they are entitled to universal human rights which we and the world claim to uphold.
The Argentine Claim
Argentina claims that she inherited the Spanish claim to the Falklands via the principle of uti possidetis juris, that the British renounced their claim in the Nootka Convention, that Britain illegally removed the Argentine colony in 1833 and that Argentina has protested this continuously. However the argument is problematic:
• Uti possidetis juris is not an accepted principle of international law.
• Whether Britain renounced its claim to the Falklands in the Nootka Convention is disputed.
• The majority of the colonists were removed by the USA.
• The remaining colonists were urged to stay by the British and the majority did so.
• In 1850 Argentina and Britain signed the Convention of Settlement “putting an end to existing differences”. After this sovereignty of the Falklands was not protested for 91 years.