[ad_1]
LONDON (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary David Cameron vowed on Monday to help defend the Falkland Islands as long as they remain under British control, despite efforts by Argentina’s new leader to reopen talks over their sovereignty. Are.
Argentina has sought to restart talks over the Falklands, over which Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982, but Britain says it will remain on the table as long as the island’s residents want to remain British. But it is not.
“As long as the Falkland Islands want to be part of the UK family, they are welcome to be part of that family,” Cameron told reporters on a visit to the Falklands.
“And we will support them, and support them and help protect and defend them, absolutely, as far as I’m concerned, for as long as they want. And I hope that’s for a very, very long time, Possibly forever.”
Argentine President Javier Meili, who took office in November, has said Buenos Aires should try to take back the islands, known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina, through diplomatic channels.
Photos you should see
In 2013, Falklands residents voted almost unanimously in a referendum to remain under British rule and maintain the archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean as a British overseas territory.
Cameron paid tribute to those killed in the Falklands War at a memorial in Port Stanley, in which 255 British and 649 Argentine personnel lost their lives.
“Of course, we want to have a good relationship with the government of Buenos Aires, Argentina,” Cameron, who met Miley at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, told reporters.
“I think the new government has taken some positive steps and we will have a good relationship with them. But it will never be at the expense of the wishes of the Falkland Islanders.”
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Ed Osmond)
Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters,
[ad_2]
Source link