Malvinas: new round of diplomatic tension between Argentina, UK

Foreign Minister Hector Timerman considered the referendum called by Malvinas government to be held on March "illegal because the United Nations declared Malvinas an implanted population after the United Kingdom invaded and expelled Argentine people from the islands in 1833."

New tensions have arisen these days after Timerman rejected to attend a meeting called by his British counterpart William Hague in London, saying that he regreted the presence of representatives of the Malvinas Legislative Assembly in the meeting and that the “international community does not accept having a third party in this dispute” over sovereignty.

Earlier today, a spokesperson for the British Foreign ministry said that in December, when the Argentine embassy requested a meeting with Hague and Timerman during the Argentine official’s trip to London in February, they had already told him that Malvinas representatives would be attending.

“Upon accepting the invitation to have a meeting between ministers of the two countries, we let the Argentine embassy know that the British Foreign Affairs minister wanted to personally put across issues and preoccupations over the Malvinas islands, and the fact that he had invited members of government from the islands,” the FCO spokesperson said.