Argentina - Argentina’s “Malvinas State policy” to be announced Saturday from Tierra del Fuego

Argentine pro-government and opposition legislators decided to postpone until Saturday the trip to Tierra del Fuego to present the document that will be the base for the “State policy” regarding the sovereignty claim over the disputed Malvinas Islands.

Senator Daniel Filmus, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Senator Daniel Filmus, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee

The trip had been scheduled for Friday, but authorities decided to put the encounter off to join the national mourning declared by President Cristina Fernández due to the Once station tragic train crash in downtown Buenos Aires.

The document will count with ten points which include the “re-affirmation of the Argentine sovereignty over the Islands,” the “defence of natural resources” and the “position against the militarization” of the territory.

The postponement announcement was made Thursday afternoon following a meeting at the office of the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator Daniel Filmus with the rest of the members from the Upper and Lower House committees, where the final draft of a unified document was agreed.

“The trip is going to be a historic event because it is the first time that the two congressional (Foreign Affairs) committees meet in Tierra del Fuego to ratify the Argentine sovereignty claim over the Malvinas Islands”, said Senator Filmus.

Besides reaffirming Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, the document contemplates the 1994 constitutional amendment which establishes the “legitimate and imprescriptible sovereignty over the South Atlantic Islands”.

The initiative will be ratified by the full houses of the Argentine congress during the first March session, once the recess is over.

Filmus said that the document includes a special mention to the support received from Latin American countries and other countries such as China to the Argentine position, as well as the significance of preserving natural resources and the safeguard of the inter-ocean space.

The final draft acknowledges the policies for a peaceful, negotiated diplomatic solution to the conflict sponsored by all Argentine democratic governments since 1983 as opposed to the attitude of the military governments of turning the dispute into an armed conflict as happened in 1982.

Senator Filmus finally underlined the consensus from the different political groups in the drafting of the document which collects the different proposals both from government and opposition lawmakers to truly confirm Malvinas as a “State policy”.