RSS Feed
May 7th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Relations between Argentina and the UK thaw as the territorial dispute about the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands) is put on ice, and the two countries resume trade relations.
Argentina and the United Kingdom launched a rapprochement to deescalate the dispute about the Islas Malvinas, designated as Falkland Islands by the United Kingdom. Relations between the two countries have seen several ups and downs since Buenos Aires and London went to war over the windblown, but resource-rich islands off the coast of Argentina.
Mark Price, British Minister of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, said Friday that the two countries “are at the start of a new era for relations to forge fresh ties that build on our historic connections and common interests.” The two countries apparently decided to put the dispute on ice and to thaw bilateral relations to focus on commercial concerns.
The discovery of potentially rich oil and gas deposits around the disputed islands has renewed the necessity to promote a bilateral rapprochement while it also has increased the motivation for scoring as good as possible in the dispute that is being mediated by the UN. Argentina’s new conservative government that took office in December 2015 appears to favor a nonconfrontational approach to the issue, in its bid to revive the national economy and bring the country back into the international financial market.
Price who visited Buenos Aires together with a trade delegation comprising 10 British companies specializing in such fields as financial service, infrastructure construction and transportation said:
“Over the coming weeks, we will see a British oil and gas delegation coming to Argentina, and an Argentine delegation attending London Tech Week. … The UK and Argentina have a long history of cooperation in the financial sphere. And London is the leading center in Europe for financial services. If we can work together on this, we can free up the resources that will enable Argentine businesses to grow.”
In a symbolic tour on Thursday to the Retiro Train Station, an architecture built by British companies more than 100 years ago which sits on the Mitre Line, Price inspected the railway electrification system also constructed by a British firm. Price commented:
“We are looking at specific opportunities … (and) rail is clearly one of them. …Our countries worked together to help build the railway network here, now we can work together to develop it further.”
Port Stanley, Islas Malvinas / Falkland Islands.
The British official’s visit came after a meeting in January in Davos between British Prime Minister David Cameron and Argentine President Mauricio Macri, at which the two leaders discussed how to expand bilateral trade. Prior to his visit to Argentina, part of the trip to boost UK’s trade ties with Latin America, Price has visited Mexico and Colombia. Price commented on upcoming talks between MERCOSUR member states and the EU, saying that The growing economies of Latin America offer huge opportunities for British business and that’s why I want to see real progress on an EU-Mercosur free trade agreement”. The British government estimated that the potential benefit of the agreement to its economy is 2.5 billion pounds (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) per year.
As for the territorial dispute, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra said that the fate of the islands was a “pending subject.” “There is an issue that separates us … It is certainly going to be part of the conversations we have, but I am not predicting anything spectacular,” said Malcorra. After the war between the two nations over the sovereignty of the islands, bilateral ties have seen ups and downs, which include fairly warm interactions under the administration of Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and the more hostile stance during the administration of Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernandez (2003-2015).
F/AK – nsnbc 07.05.2016
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/05/07/argentina-uk-put-malvinas-dispute-on-ice-resume-trade-relations/
Posted in 
Tags: 
