Theresa May extends olive branch to Argentina in hope of resolving Falklands Islands issue
New PM tackled the thorny topic in a letter to Argentinian President Mauricio Macri
THERESA May is extending an olive branch to Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri over the hotly disputed Falkland Islands.
She has written to him saying she wants more flights to the British-run islands and calling for restrictions on oil exploration there to be lifted.
The Falkland Islands have been British since 1833 but this has not stopped Argentina claiming it has sovereignty over the territory.
It calls it Las Malvinas and there have been arguments for decades, with it coming to a head with the Falklands War in 1982.
In the Prime Minister’s letter she says while the countries have differences she hopes they can be tackled with ‘mutual respect’.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Since the election of President Macri, we have been working towards improved relations with Argentina because we think that is in the interests of both our countries and the Falkland Islanders too.”
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reports the Falklands is currently served by one flight from Santiago every Saturday, via the southern Chilean city of Puntas Arenas.
This flight also stops in Rio Gallegos, Argentina, once a month – in both directions.
The letter from Mrs May is her first to the pro-business President Macri, who took office in December after years of tensions during Cristina Fernandez’s time in charge.
As well as calling for more flights, she called for the removal of “restrictive hydrocarbons measures”, a reference to attempts by Argentine authorities to stop oil and gas exploration in the waters around the islands.
Last summer, when Fernandez was in charge of Argentina, an Argentine federal judge ordered millions of pounds worth of assets owned by drillers operating in the Falklands area to be seized.
Oil exploration still goes on in the area but the low prices on the international markets have slowed this down.
There are about 3,000 people living on The Falklands and the majority say they want to remain a British territory.
In 2013 a sovereignty referendum was held and out of the 1,513 votes cast 99.8% said they wanted to stay as an overseas territory, with just three people voting to say no.
Argentina says Britain’s sovereignty claim is false and claims we have deliberately settled Britons on the islands over the years to keep it British.