Minister to hold Falklands flight dispute talks
Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell is to travel to Argentina on Monday to address the impasse over air access rights to the Falkland Islands.
He will meet with Rafael Bielsa, Argentina’s foreign minister.
The Government says Argentina has been unfairly demanding some air charters from Chile to the Falklands firstly obtain permission to fly over Argentina.
Argentina decided late last year to ban charter flights to and from the Falklands crossing its airspace.
Argentina says any new air services should be provided by an Argentine carrier.
Flights have been suspended as the spat continues.
The Foreign Office says the suspension of the flights, which service cruise ships to the Falklands, is damaging the islands’ fragile tourist trade.
Falklanders reportedly perceive the prospect of regular scheduled flights from Argentina as a possible threat to their sovereignty.
Mr Rammell yesterday admitted a “disagreement” had arisen over the overflight issue.
“Despite considerable efforts on our side, it has not been possible to reach agreement.”
Argentine ambassador to the UK, Federeco Mirre, complained yesterday that he felt Argentina’s “carriers of a contagion” were not allowed to put a foot there, even though other national airlines were allowed to land in the Falklands.
Analysts say an emboldened Argentina is using the overflights issue to step up the rhetoric over the lingering sovereignty dispute with the British government.
On Tuesday, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner’s chief of staff said his country still had a right to the islands.
Alberto Fernandes said: “We feel we lost unfairly those rights, and we’ll keep doing everything to get their sovereignty back, within a diplomatic framework obviously.
“We’ll go on behaving like this and trust we can get an agreement to recover our islands.
“The British government has its own position and we have ours. We’ll keep on fighting in favour of ours, as the British government maintains its.
“I think that rationality will rule at all times but whatever, no-one can doubt that we have the sovereign right to the islands that are less than 200 miles from the Argentine coast.”
