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News > Argentina

Argentine: Congress Passes Two Laws On Malvinas Sovereignty

  • Argentina does not rest on defending its sovereignty over the Malvinas, usurped by the UK in 1833

    Argentina does not rest on defending its sovereignty over the Malvinas, usurped by the UK in 1833 | Photo: AFP

Published 5 August 2020
Opinion

The lawmakers ratified the defense of sovereignty, the national interest, and the fight to defend Malvina's territory, usurped for almost 187 years.

By a vast majority, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies gave on Wednesday the go-ahead two key projects closely related to the Malvinas Islands (Falklands), a territory disputed today with the United Kingdom, which seized it in 1833.

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Finally, the bill is now law and establishes the new boundary of the outer limit of the Argentine territories. It proposes to strengthen Argentine sovereignty over the waters of the South Atlantic, the Malvinas Islands, and their surrounding maritime space, through the creation of an advisory National Council for Matters Relating to the Malvinas Islands.

The first initiative was voted nearly unanimously with 238 affirmative votes and two abstentions, while the second received 235 votes.

At the beginning of the speeches, the President of the Foreign Affairs and Worship Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Valdés from the Front for All party (Frente de Todos), said that both projects constitute "a State policy of Argentina."

"Argentina made a historic advance to strengthen sovereignty with state policies. Unanimously the Chamber of @DiputadosAR passed the laws creating the Falklands Affairs Council and demarcating the outer limit of the continental shelf."

He also stressed that the creation of the National Council" means for Argentina, the only conceivable avenue to champion a space that belongs to 44 million Argentines is the peaceful and diplomatic ones."

"The Malvinas issue is a debt of our young democracy and is also of vital importance as an economic value in renewable and non-renewable natural resources, maritime and river transport activities, port and industrial tasks," stated Valdés.

The Council, as mentioned earlier, will be extended for five years headed by the President of the Nation. Its functions will be to contribute to generating the political and social consensus necessary to design and implement State policies aimed at making effective the full exercise of sovereignty over Malvinas, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.

Meanwhile, the other law establishes the final outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 miles. It seeks to reaffirm the rights of Argentine sovereignty over the resources of the bed and subsoil of the continental platform.

In a note released on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Felipe Solá welcomed the unanimous signing of both bills as law. At the same time, the Secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus, described it as "a historic advance to strengthen sovereignty with state policies."

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