Falklands Diplomacy

[Colin1]

The Daily Telegraph 19 February 2010

Argentina is not exactly sabre-rattling in its imposition of a new permit system for all vessels travelling to and from the Falklands, but the increase in tension is palpable. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has good domestic political reasons for turning up the heat. Her government is unpopular, the economy is a mess and nothing unites Argentine opinion quite like the Falklands. The country's constitution states that the imposition of sovereignty on the British territory is a 'permanent and unrelinquished goal of the Argentine people'; an ambition given extra momentum by the estimated 60 billion barrels of oil lying beneath its territorial waters. Indeed, it was the imminent arrival of an oil drilling platform to start developing these reserves that was the spur for Argentina's truculent action.

The British government's low-key response has been sensible. There is nothing to be gained from embarking on a slanging match with Buenos Aires and we have the reassurance of knowing that we have a strong military presence in the area. A flight of Tornadoes is based on the islands while the offshore patrol vessel HMS Clyde is on permanent station and has been joined by the destroyer HMS York and a supply tanker.



As the island's oil wealth is exploited, diplomatic spats of this kind are likely to become more frequent. The Argentine government says it has no intention of proceeding by anything other than diplomatic means, which offers some comfort. Yet its insistence that it will take 'adequate measures' to halt the exploration is peturbing. That is why our military presence there is so important - and also why the forthcoming defence review must not fall into the trap of thinking that all future conflicts will be anti-insurrection campaigns, fought primarily by soldiers on dry land.

[michaelmaltby]

Once again Argentina shows that it never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity (to paraphrase

Support and engineering services for a large. deep water, off shore oil industry could be a real boon to Argentina's economy ... instead they put "conditions" on access and try to settle political agendas.

Their loss. Margaret didn't send the troops to Goose Green just to piss the advantage away.

No offense intended to my Argentine friends on this board.

Chairs,

MM

[Maximowitz]

Most British people didn't even know the Falkland Islands existed until they were invaded. And even then they thought they were off the coast of Cornwall.....


.....if we invaded the Faroe Islands do you think the Danish would notice or know where they were?

[Colin1]

Most British people didn't even know the Falkland Islands existed until they were invaded. And even then they thought they were off the coast of Cornwall.....


.....if we invaded the Faroe Islands do you think the Danish would notice or know where they were?

That's just Scilly... (I'll get my coat)

if we're going to nark the Danes, I suggest we invade Greenland, lots of potential there when global warming melts all the ice. We could install Bikerbabe as our puppet governor

[Waynos]

Most British people didn't even know the Falkland Islands existed until they were invaded. And even then they thought they were off the coast of Cornwall.....

I disagree Max, most people thought they were off the coast of Scotland

Or is it a North /South thing?

Colin, the Tornadoes were replaced by Typhoons last year

[Glider]

Lets hope that cool heads prevail

[Colin1]

Colin, the Tornadoes were replaced by Typhoons last year

I'll talk to my man on Canary Wharf...

[timshatz]

If oil wasn't in the picture, I figure the odds of cool heads prevailing are good. However. ..

[Maximowitz]

If oil wasn't in the picture, I figure the odds of cool heads prevailing are good. However. ..

Unfortunately due to the recession a Task Force is out of the question this time. HM Goverment will instead challenge Argentina to best out of three at Grand Theft Auto to decide the matter.

[parsifal]

Dont the brits maintain a bigger military presence on the islands than they did in '82? I wonder if plans are afoot to reinforce the garrison in a more timely way than occurred the last time this sort of crisis developed

[Glider]

In 1982 basically all we had were 32 marines and an ice patrol vessel which didn't anything bigger than a 20mm, plus the airfield couldn't take aircraft bugger than a lightly loaded C130.
Now we have 1000 troops on the island with Rapier and radar warning, a type 42 close by and a fishery vessel full time. Most importantly the airfield is in the International class cabable of taking anything including the C17 so reinforcements can be flown in almost immediately and a small number of Typhoons are based there

All the clever money would say that a nuclear sub is on the way if not already there

[RabidAlien]

Heh. If tensions are running high, you can bet there's been a sub poking holes in the ocean ever since someone first scowled in England's direction.

[vikingBerserker]

That would be a yuppers.

[shadow81]

Dear Friends:
It`s very, very sad our position about this affair. Through the years, we see our "most experienced people" speaking about "las Malvinas son Argentinas", but, really... How we can espect do something about taht far and almost forgotten land if our goverment ignores the needs of the people here, at the continent? You go to hospital and doctor are in strike. Teachers are almost beggers. Our president, Cris, only think about Louis Vuitton purses.
I`m feel shame bros.
I was an infantrymen at `82. My rifle was a Mauser 1898.
Don´t reach the first line, but our unit spend all the misery you can image.
I ALWAYS respect Uk. And still do.
If our politician are "Incompetentes",nobody than us has the blame.
Greetins, to all my new forum friends.

[timshatz]

Dear Friends:
It`s very, very sad our position about this affair. Through the years, we see our "most experienced people" speaking about "las Malvinas son Argentinas", but, really... How we can espect do something about taht far and almost forgotten land if our goverment ignores the needs of the people here, at the continent? You go to hospital and doctor are in strike. Teachers are almost beggers. Our president, Cris, only think about Louis Vuitton purses.
I`m feel shame bros.
I was an infantrymen at `82. My rifle was a Mauser 1898.
Don´t reach the first line, but our unit spend all the misery you can image.
I ALWAYS respect Uk. And still do.
If our politician are "Incompetentes",nobody than us has the blame.
Greetins, to all my new forum friends.

Welcome aboard Shadow.

I've heard from more than one source that the intent of the Govt is to distract the public from their economic woes by throwing the Falklands/Malvinas out there. From what I've read, Kircher is over her head in the economy (a lot of leaders with no business experience are but mix that with a left leaning political ideology and you have a big problem) and things are not getting any better (they seem to be up here but it is more of a head fake). On the good side, maybe she'll get tossed in the next election/

As for carrying a bolt action rifle in an automatic war, whoever sent you out armed like that oughta be thrown in jail. Too much distance between the officers who are in charge and the guys on the ground usually leads to stuff like that. Criminal.