Guyana reaffirms ‘strongest support’ for Argentina’s Malvinas claims
Guyana along with several other Caribbean and former Commonwealth nations has reaffirmed its “strongest support to the legitimate rights of Argentina in the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas…”
The issue of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands has been a source of friction between the UK government and Guyana in recent years after Guyana has become more vocal in its support for Argentina’s claims. Now at a January 28-29 meeting in Costa Rica of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) which was attended by PM Sam Hinds, Guyana along with “Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago” and Latin American member nations, has once again reaffirmed its position.
Back in 2013 at a reception held by the Argentine ambassador President Ramotar had stated “I wish also to reiterate Guyana’s support for the government and people of Argentina to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity to all of Argentina, including the Malvinas Islands.” British High Commissioner Andrew Ayre had subsequently responded via CaribNews Desk that “it is no secret that we disagree…We understand why some countries might view the issue as one of territorial integrity, some sort of implanting of population but the reality is that when Britain settled the Falkland Islands, Argentina did not exist…essentially it is part of Britain and it will never be part of Argentina.”
Stabroek News had commented in an editorial on the first CELAC meeting in 2010 where Guyana also joined in supporting Argentina’s “legitimate rights” noting “It is therefore even more interesting that Guyana should have been party to a unanimous statement reaffirming Argentina’s “legitimate rights,” a term that rather suggests pre-judgment of a complex historical and legal territorial dispute. More pertinently, we would do well to recall, notwithstanding whatever anti-imperial sentiments that might exist, that during the 1982 Falklands War, Guyana refused to support the aggressor, Argentina, and supported UK arguments based on the principles of non-intervention and the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes. The implications then for our own border controversy with Venezuela were very clear.
In the present circumstances, we sincerely hope that we have not ceded any diplomatic ground in the interest of some tenuous notion of regional solidarity. In this respect, it would be enlightening to hear more from official sources about the justification for our apparent support for Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas/Falklands and how all this squares with our strategy to preserve our own sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
