Press Release
On 3 January 1933, British forces occupied the Malvinas Islands, expelling by force the inhabitants and the legitimately established Argentine authorities. This act of force was immediately protested against and was never accepted by the Argentine Republic.

Today, 176 years after such illegitimate occupation-whish continues to the day – the Argentine Government reaffirms once more the imprescriptible rights of sovereignty of the Argentine Republic over the Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime and insular spaces, which are an integral part of the Argentine national territory.

The Argentine Constitution enshrines the permanent and unrenounceable objective of recovering the full exercise of sovereignty over these territories and maritime spaces, in accordance with the principles of international law, and respecting the way of life of the inhabitants of the Malvinas Islands. This objective constitutes a Sate policy and responds to a collective desire of the Argentine Nation’s people.

Argentina agreed with the United Kingdom bilateral understandings of a provisional nature under the sovereignty safeguard formula aimed at cooperating on practical aspects as a means to contribute to creating an environment propitious for the resumption of negotiations to find a solution to the dispute.

However, such objective has not been fulfilled because of the United Kingdom’s persistent reluctance to address the question of sovereignty and performance of unilateral acts affecting the disputed area that not only violate the spirit and letter of such understandings, but also conflict with the United Nations’ call against adopting decisions that would imply introducing unilateral modification in the situation while the islands are going through the process recommended by the relevant resolutions.

Such British unilateral acts led the Argentine Government to terminate the Joint Declaration on Hydrocarbons in March 2007, and the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission not to hold any further meeting since December 2005.

More recently, the British Government performed a new unilateral act purporting to have adopted a new constitution for the Malvinas Islands, which entails a further disregard for the resolutions on the General Assembly and Special Committee on Decolonization and a new violation of the spirit of the understandings referred to above, which were agreed upon under the sovereignty formula. This new British unilateral act was strongly protested against by the Argentine Government on 6 November 2008.

The Argentine Government is convinced that Argentina and the United Kingdom should jointly assess all the bilateral understandings in light of their ultimate purpose, which is to contribute to creating and environment propitious for resuming the negotiations on sovereignty. As long as the United Kingdom refuses to do so, Argentina will be compelled to make such an assessment without the involvement of the United Kingdom.

The Argentine Republic find no justification for the British refusal to address the substance of question in order to find a just, peaceful and lasting solution to the sovereignty dispute in line with the mandate of the international community and reiterates once more its permanent willingness to resume bilateral negotiations with the United Kingdom to find a definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute and put an end to this anachronistic colonial situation that is not consistent with current times and the evolution of the modern world.

Buenos Aires, January, 3rd 2009.”