Filmus: “We hear no one speaking in favor of the United Kingdom on the Falklands”

In a session that lasted longer than expected due to the number of exhibitors who expressed their position in favor of Argentina, United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (C-24) adopted new resolution by consensus which reiterates, as every year since 1983, the appeal launched to the United Kingdom and Argentina to resume peaceful negotiations to resolve the sovereignty controversy over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich and surrounding sea areas, based on the so-called resolution 2065.

In order to Daniel Filmus, Secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic and one of the members of the delegation with the Chancellor Felipe Solá, yesterday was the culmination of a long diplomatic work that dates back to the first days of government since last year, due to the pandemic, there was no committee meeting.

– Has everything expected from the vote in the decolonization committee been obtained?

– We are really very satisfied because it was not only a consensus vote on the resolution but it had to be, of all the resolutions, the one that garnered the most explicit support. Support from multilateral organizations and also from countries which were mainly from the region but also from speaking Asian, African and Caribbean countries, from all regions of the world accompanying this project. I insist: this must have been a record number of one-off events given that many countries came specifically to express their support since they are not members of the Committee.

“This expresses what is the consensus that exists at the global level and which is considered by the United Kingdom as a colonial country”

Why is this more active participation now taking place, is it in favor of Argentina or is there increasing wear and tear of demands for colonialism against a UK outside the EU?

– We have been working on this issue for months. This presence does not happen overnight. In the midst of the pandemic, it was very difficult to reach the countries that had to vote today and that we couldn’t reach personally, so the work was done in capitals, through our embassies, and in parallel with the work that has also been done here at the United Nations, I think that has been very important. It exceeded our expectations.

– Does this change the link with the United Kingdom as it stands today?

– No, that’s what puts pressure on the UK. We are not hearing any support for UK sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. No united country has come to express its agreement with self-determination or the sovereignty of the United Kingdom over the Malvinas. This expresses what is the consensus that exists at the global level and which is seen in the UK’s vision as colonial.

– In her speech, the Chancellor placed particular emphasis on the condemnation of so-called unilateral actions by London …

– Most of the previous resolutions supported not only 2065 (which urges the UK to sit down to negotiate the sovereignty issue) but also 31/49, which is the one that raises the illegitimacy and illegality of the extraction of resources from the South Atlantic in the disputed area. The resolution of the g77 + China, as well as Celac and the Ibero-American summit included this issue. It was a step forward for Argentinian diplomacy to include in the debate this question of the extraction of natural resources which belong to 45 million Argentines and Argentines. Especially after this was taken out of resolutions from previous years after we managed to include it in 2014/2015.

– When we talk about this type of exploitation against the UN provisions, are we mainly talking about fishing and oil?

–Of course, renewable and non-renewable resources. This is why fishing and hydrocarbons as well as the whole military question were raised by the Chancellor and supported by all countries. We even worked hard so that this year the South Atlantic Peace Zone, which brings together all the African and Latin American countries that we have on the coast, meet again, in order to strengthen the denunciation of illegality. from the military base.

“I was in a meeting with Brazil and Uruguay to generate a meeting in October and a declaration. All three of us are concerned about the South Atlantic.”

– Is there a strategy in this direction for the coming months?

– I have personally met with Cape Verde, Brazil and Uruguay, which are three of the countries most concerned about this issue to generate an ad hoc Peace Zone meeting in October, when the General Assembly is functioning, and a statement that is already starting to circulate.

– Is there political harmony with Brazil and Uruguay to work on these issues despite the friction in other areas such as trade agreements and the common external tariff of Mercosur?

– I met the two countries and precisely the country which holds the presidency of the Zone of Peace is Uruguay, which I headed. And Brazil is one of the main stakeholders. The three of us are concerned about the South Atlantic.

—How does the expansion of Argentina’s continental shelf with UN approval affect the legal resource dispute with the UK?

– The UN has not defined itself in the area where the sovereignty dispute persists because it is a technical commission that is studying it. We, by our Constitution, incorporated it into the continental shelf but the UN decided not to take a decision as long as the dispute over sovereignty persists, that’s what Argentina wanted it to say.