UK Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire.
British Minister of State for the Foreign Office Hugo Swire has stated London would rather sit at the negotiating table with Sergio Massa or Mauricio Macri to discuss the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands. Swire alleged the representatives of Argentina’s opposition would show a “more mature vision” over the bilateral dispute than the Kirchnerite government.
When queried today by Argentina’s state news agency in the Uruguayan capital city of Uruguay about the state of the Malvinas row, the UK official said MP Massa and Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires Macri are “presidential contenders” who “will have a more realistic and mature approach over the Malvinas question.”
In that sense, Swire revealed London’s position about Argentina’s political scenario ahead of next year’s presidential elections. The minister expressed UK’s «certainty» that the government here “will change” since “Ms. Kirchner can not be reelected.”
“There will be then a new president. And we very much wish that the future government in Buenos Aires holds a different position.”
Hugo Swire, who was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the UK in 2012, arrived in Uruguay this week where he was received by the Vice Prisendent of the South American country Danilo Astori and held meetings with Uruguayan opposition lawmakers who visited the disputed islands last month.
“We would like to have a friendlier relationship between the Malvinas and the rest of the countries, including Argentina,” Swire insisted and went on to defend the referendum that inhabitants in the resource-rich archipelago held to reaffirm their decision to remain what they alreaday are – British citizens -, in 2013.
The government of Argentina has long rejected the referendum with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner personally describing it as a “consortium of squatters,” blasting the UK for the 1883 occupation of the Islands. Buenos Aires, in fact, has repeatedly recalled the official position by the United States that the Malvinas Islands conflict does not involve the principle of peoples’ right to self-determination as the coalition government of David Cameron says, but a sovereignty dispute that involves indeed a country’s territory being seized by a foreign power.
buenosairesherald.com