Malvinas gov't open to CFK's air link proposal but sets conditions

After President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's proposal to create an air link from Buenos Aires to the islands, the Malvinas government showed its willingness to discuss ways of communication but remarked that the proposal “was not made within a context of amity and friendship,” but “against a backdrop of increasing hostility.”

According to the The Penguin News, the Malvinas Legislative Assembly sent a letter to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) which was later forwarded to the local Government, detailing that its members are “willing to strength the communications between the Falkland Islands [Malvinas] and Argentina, and establish a dialogue with the Argentine government in order to set the proper ways of communicating.”

British sources informed that the Islanders' idea is to discuss the resume of charter flights from and to Argentina -Fernández de Kirchner offered three weekly flights- but with the condition of not interferring with the weekly LAN airline flight that connects the South Atlantic archipelago with Chile by crossing the Argentine air-space, as the islanders consider it fundamental in terms of fruit and vegetables supply.

Likewise, the letter remarked that the proposal made by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner during a special session in Congress “was made not within a context of amity and friendship towards the (Malvinas) Islands people but against a backdrop of increasing hostility.”

Sources in the Foreign Ministry could not confirm whether they had received the letter yet, while the Penguin News assures that the Government “has acknowledged receipt of the letters but has not responded.”