Whether the Conservative Party or the Labor Party governs, the United Kingdom maintains a systematic plan in its policy towards the Falklands and the other islands of the South Atlantic that it fulfills step by step.
In this context, in recent weeks the announcement was made public that London
unilaterally expanded its maritime and fishing control around the archipelago,
specifically in the southernmost South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.
Under the motto that improvements are sought in the protection of the Antarctic seas, the British announcement implied
an extension of the so-called “no take zones” (no fishing zones) by 166,000 square kilometers more than the existing ones.
This would increase the marine habitat protected only by the United Kingdom in waters that Argentina considers its own to
449,000 square kilometers.
“The Commissioner of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (a British official, under the acronym SGSSI) has announced plans to expand the spatial extent of the no-take zones in the SGSSI Marine Protected Area (MPA) (by the islands), increasing its area from 283,000 km2 to 449,000 km2.
These additional measures will result in 36% of the SGSSI Maritime Zone being closed to fishing activity.
An additional 17,000 km2 will be closed to krill fishing through the introduction of additional pelagic (oceanic) closed areas.”
For the British it is an important area.
The 166,000 square kilometers constitute an
area eight times the size of Wales,
which is part of the island of Great Britain, and which could in no way be obtained and managed in the European seas.
Video
The Chancellor reaffirmed Argentina's position on the Malvinas.
Contrary to what has been reported, the announcement is not a consequence of the unexpected short circuits between Chancellor Diana Mondino and her British counterpart, David Cameron, on the contrary of a long-standing fisheries policy launched in 2012.
Protest and discomfort
The visit of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom to the Falklands a few weeks ago led the Argentine minister to present a
protest in person
to the minister of Rishi Sunak's government when they met within the framework of the G20 in Rio de Janeiro, at the end of February.
In it, Mondino expressed discomfort to Cameron about recent statements about the sovereignty of the islands and about his visit to the archipelago -
they say he was also irritated because Cameron uploaded a video walking among penguins in the Falklands shortly before the meeting
they had in Brazil - and there he highlighted - reported a later statement - "the sovereign rights of the Argentine Republic in the Question of the Malvinas Islands and reiterated his country's willingness to resolve the dispute in accordance with the mandate of the international community."
The current situation with the extension of the marine area is highly serious, because it is added to other new measures such as the construction of a new port.
And he puts Javier Milei's government in a different situation than he thought when he sought to relax the level of conflict that always existed between Kirchnerism and the United Kingdom over the Malvinas, the facts take him to another place.
In fact, Milei and Mondino decided to maintain, as Secretary of State, the Malvinas area that is now in charge of the former Vice Minister of Defense, Paola Di Chiaro, instead of lowering her rank to decompress the focus on the conflict.
And at the same time, the lack of interest in the embassy in London does not cease to draw attention when asking a
low-ranking diplomat
, Mariana Plaza, who was the third in authority of the now former ambassador Javier Figueroa, to be appointed head of the embassy. .
In Argentina's rejection of the British decision to expand and apply British legislation on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands plus their maritime spaces, the Foreign Ministry recalled this week that
"they form an integral part of the Argentine national territory."
And he reminded the British ambassador here, Kirsty Hayes, in a note, that there is a regulation on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and other legal frameworks by which only the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources can adopt regulations regarding the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources.
Therefore, the Argentine side maintains, the British announcement
would be in violation of the CCAMLR multilateral regime, as the area is delimited by the Antarctic Treaty.
The British unilateral decision is a continuation and generated protests from the governor of the so-called Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and Atlantic Islands, Gustavo Melella.
This in turn declared Cameron "persona non grata", which is actually a power of the national Executive.
The former chancellor and current deputy, Santiago Cafiero,
joined in :
“The British government once again violates Argentine sovereignty rights and challenges the international community by unilaterally and illegally expanding a fishing exclusion zone of 166,000 km2 around the Georgia Islands and South Sandwich” he said and lists UN resolutions that ask the parties to this conflict to refrain from taking non-consensual measures.
The British government once again violates Argentine sovereignty rights and challenges the international community by unilaterally and illegally expanding a fishing exclusion zone of 166,000 km2 around the Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.
https://t.co/vg8v0O6QIu
— Santiago Cafiero (@SantiagoCafiero) March 5, 2024
However, to a large extent, what happens in these clashes and in the deficit in the relationship with London is the result of a lack of State policy on this issue.
For example, in the context of the extreme malvinization of the link with the United Kingdom that Kirchnerism faced and that
withdrew the country from the spaces for negotiation and cooperation in fisheries conservation activity in the South Atlantic
, on which the island coffers depend. through granting licenses to operate to foreign vessels.
The area that the British are now expanding in South Georgia and South Sandwich was created in 2012 within the framework of Cristina Kirchner's strong clashes with the United Kingdom - even with David Cameron being prime minister - and was protested by Argentina ever since. .
For its part, Argentina also had its gesture that upset the British and Chileans.
Although authorized by the United Nations, the country expanded its continental shelf in the sea by 1,700,000 square kilometers of surface.
This translates into a 35% increase in their territorial rights in the subsoil and seabed.
The new Argentine map includes the South Atlantic islands and what is known as Argentine Antarctica on the continental shelf.
However, because they are in dispute, and in certain cases under British jurisdiction, they are not areas that Argentina has for itself.
The commissioner's current announcement in Georgia and Sandwich follows a
protected area review process carried out by the British every five years.
The first time they did it in 2019. This is the second time they do it within the framework of a larger country-level program they call
Blue Belt
.
Now, for the first five months of licensed fishing,
40% of the Maritime Protected Area will be closed to krill fishing,
and 95% closed to longline fishing.
“The network of no-take zones largely prohibits fishing in the most biodiverse and potentially vulnerable habitats, as well as covering regions identified by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) experts as Marine Mammal Areas. Important (IMMA)”, says the British advertisement.