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Argentina seeks US backing in dispute with Britain over the Falklands

26 February 2010 00:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Argentina is to seek the backing of the United States in its dispute with Britain over Falklands oil exploration as President Kirchner prepares to meet Hillary Clinton next week, APA reports citing TimesOnline.co.uk.

Fresh from an inconclusive meeting at the UN, where Argentina failed to secure anything other than a vague acknowledgement of its concerns, Buenos Aires has turned its gaze to Washington in its attempt to stop what it says are illegal British activities in the disputed islands.

The hastily scheduled meeting, announced by Hector Timerman, the Argentine Ambassador to Washington, will take place in Uruguay on Monday, when Mrs Clinton will attend the presidential inauguration of JosÃ© Mujica. Argentina will be pressing the White House to drop its declared neutrality and support Buenos Aires in the dispute, which looks set to deteriorate further.

Though President Reagan gave public backing and vital intelligence to Britain in the 1982 conflict over the islands, senior US officials now insist that Washington will stick with a policy of non-intervention. Philip Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said that the US maintained a position of neutrality but encouraged â€œgood faith dialogueâ€, adding that if both sides requested mediation â€œwe would consider itâ€.

Tensions between the two old adversaries have risen to their highest level in almost three decades with the arrival in the Falklands of a British oil rig. It began drilling this week in the hope of finding substantial oil and gas reserves beneath the Falklands seabed.

A rival oil project was announced yesterday by the Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF about 150 miles west of the British drilling, raising the prospect of a hydrocarbon race in the region. The move follows an encounter in the South Atlantic last month between ARA Drummond, an Argentine Navy corvette, and HMS York, a Royal Navy destroyer. The Argentine vessel withdew. With tensions heightened, Buenos Aires is seeking to turn up the heat internationally to force Britain to discuss the sovereignty issue, an idea London has so far rejected.

The State Department was unwilling to offer immediate comment on how Mrs Clinton planned to deal with an issue that will undoubtedly be raised not only by Ms Kirchner but also by other regional leaders with whom she is to meet. The week-long tour follows the Rio Group summit in Mexico, at which 32 Latin American and Caribbean heads of state backed Argentinaâ€™s claim of sovereignty.

At the Mexico summit, where the British presence in the South Atlantic was painted as a colonial threat to the region, President Lula demanded that the UN should take a more forceful stand on the issue. â€œOur attitude is one of solidarity with Argentina,â€ he said.