The Secretary of the Malvinas, Antártida y Atlántico Sur, Daniel Filmus (Photo: Twitter)
Malvinas-Falkland, Filmus has begun to define policy changes with the new government.
ARGENTINA
Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 20:40 (GMT + 9)
The Secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus, held in the last hours of yesterday a talk with militants from different Peronist organizations and groups related to the government, to explain the change in the current government's policy regarding the Malvinas issue.
What caught our attention was how well organised the event was on Zoom and how cordial, punctual and respectful the miltants and Filmus were towards each other. If the same happened among the 45 million Argentines, the country's situation would be very different.
Source: Twitter / Daniel Filmus
Filmus shared his historical perspective on the Malvinas issue - many points of which we would question - and then drew attention to a map the Argentine government had drawn showing the Continental Shelf with its potential resources redrawn to reflect the government's opinions of where those boundaries should be.
In a part of the talk, Filmus mentioned that the "South Atlantic is the richest area in fish resources in the world", which would be interesting to check because at first glance there are areas in the world with much more important resources, such as the Region of Newfoundland (Canada), the Bering Sea, the North Sea, the Pacific Ocean off Peru and Chile, the Sea of Japan and the area between Namibia-South Africa-Mozambique just to name a few.
Note: of the 20.3% that corresponds to the Atlantic Ocean, the South is only a fraction (Source: Wikipedia)
Actually, the main resource that has any weight at the international level is squid. Both the Illex, which swims within the EEZ of Argentina, the Malvinas and neighbouring international areas, and the Patagonian loligo that is practically present only in the Malvinas area where it is caught.
This point is extremely important since a large part of these resources do not have any type of control and are captured and traded by foreign fleets, predominantly Chinese, that do the "squid circuit" annually.
It was mentioned at some point in the talk that the UK takes the resources of the Falkland Islands. To my knowledge, this is not the case since there is no British fleet operating in the area and neither does the United Kingdom process or consume these products like Spain, China, Taiwan, Korea or Japan. The resources are taken by these countries that either pay a fee to fish within the zone administered by the Islands, or they fish in international waters beyond all control. And this is where a first opportunity appears to do something positive for the benefit of all parties, since any unregulated and uncontrolled fishing activity gives rise to all kinds of situations unfortunately known to all (abuses and cases of slavery in crews, evasion of taxes, catches and undeclared transshipments, vessels without identification or duplicates, vessels without valid maritime registry and possibly without any insurance that can cover any loss, etc)
"Squid Circuit Map" of the operations of the Chinese fleet that operates with squid throughout the year and in different areas. There are more than 250 fishing and support vessels that go from the Pacific to the Atlantic and normally do crew replacement and maintenance in the port of Montevideo. (Image: courtesy ChinaDialogeOcean)
At another point in the talk, Filmus mentioned different United Nations resolutions. Without going into details about them, I would like to emphasize that beyond any resolution taken by the General Assembly there is an existing structure, since the current version of the United Nations was formed, which is called the Security Council and the United Kingdom is one of the five permanent member countries with veto power (1). This is not a minor issue and has a weight in practice that perhaps the Argentine side is underestimating.
UN Security Council Chamber
A positive issue to highlight has been that on two occasions in his talk Filmus explained, to the more than 200 participants, that the population of the Islands must be treated with respect and even made reference to the First Transitory Provision of the Argentine Constitution that says clearly "... respecting the way of life of its inhabitants" also referring to the fact that there are other populations in Argentina whose language, culture and traditions have been respected (2). Although this is contradictory to the different measures that the government has taken and plans to take in the short term and that directly affect the population of the islands, at least it is an important signal from Filmus.
As a corollary, it could be said that it would seem almost impossible for Filmus, or any other government parties, to achieve any important progress, since if there is currently no consensus and respect between the two majority sectors of the country, which in theory speak the same language, it would seem utopian to achieve it with the inhabitants of the islands who speak only English and do not have any kind of cultural, political, economic and commercial affinity with the government and the 45 million Argentines.
The aggressive "actions" that are coming may not be part of a path to a new relationship but, on the contrary, the prelude to a "reaction" based on an old principle well known to all.
Working to overcome problems and conflicts that affect everyone is a priority and can be done only with creativity, respect and altruism.
This option also does not present any conflict of interest with respect to sovereignty in the Islands.
Andres Loubet-Jambert
Co-Founder & Publisher
Related News:
1-SECURITY COUNCIL
The Council is made up of 15 nations, 5 permanent members with veto power - the United States, the United Kingdom, the French Republic, the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China - and 10 non-permanent members.
The 10 non-permanent members are elected 5 out of 5 each year by the UN General Assembly and for a period of 2 years. The presidency of the Council rotates monthly alphabetically.
The G4 nations (India, Germany, Japan, and Brazil) support each other to secure permanent seats on the Security Council (Source: Wikipedia)
VETO POWER
Each member of the Council has one vote. Decisions in general require the affirmative vote of at least nine members.
The veto power of the United Nations Security Council refers to the veto power exercised exclusively by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), allowing them to avoid the approval of any "substantive" resolution. In the negotiations for the creation of the UN, the power of veto was resented by many small countries and, in fact, was forced by the nations proposing the veto through a threat that without the veto there would be no UN. (Source: Wikipedia)
2-Official Language: None
Recognized regional languages:
- Guaraní in Corrientes
- Quechua in Santiago del Estero
- Qom, Mocoví, and Wichí in Chaco
- Welsh in Chubut
The Argentine Republic has not established any official language by law; However, the Spanish language is the one used (since the founding of the Argentine State) by the administration of the republic and in which education is taught in all public establishments.
English is the second best-known language in the country, and its teaching is compulsory from primary school in several provinces. Argentina is the only Latin American country classified as a country of "high proficiency" in English, ranking 15th worldwide in 2015. (Source: Wikipedia)
Flag of the city of Puerto Madryn and the Welsh colony in Argentina and the Trevelin shield preserves the flag of the colony
The population of Welsh origin has been fully integrated into the rest of the community, and many descendants keep the language and culture alive, which is renewed each year with the celebration of the festival called Eisteddfod; it is currently estimated at around 72,685 thousand Welsh-Argentine inhabitants living in the territory of the Argentine Republic. (Source: Wikipedia)
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