United Nations A/66/884
Distr.: General
17 August 2012
General Assembly English
Original: Spanish
Original: General
Sixty-sixth session
Agenda item 45
Question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Letter dated 13 August 2012 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General
On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to transmit herewith a letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship condemning the unilateral military activities carried out by the United Kingdom in July, including the launching of missiles from the Malvinas Islands (see annex).
I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the General Assembly under agenda item 45, concerning the question of the Malvinas Islands.
(Signed) Mateo Estreme
Minister and Chargé d’affaires a.i.
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Annex to the letter dated 13 August 2012 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General
7 August 2012
I have the honour to write to you regarding a matter of great sensitivity not only for my country, but for the entire region: the question of the Malvinas Islands.
Once again I take advantage of your firm commitment to international peace and security to condemn the United Kingdom’s unilateral military activities in the South Atlantic, which can only be understood as a further hostile act and a provocation directed by a military power against a peaceful region.
Argentina has no doubt about its sovereignty rights over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia Islands and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas, which have now been occupied by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for almost 180 years and are the subject of a sovereignty dispute.
The United Nations has recognized this dispute through many resolutions, in which the parties were urged to solve it by resuming negotiations. The United Kingdom, however, refuses to discuss this issue with the Argentine Republic.
The situation in the South Atlantic has deteriorated as a result of the United Kingdom’s constant unilateral actions; in July, it again conducted military exercises, including the launching of missiles from the Malvinas Islands, in the disputed area.
In October 2010, the Argentine Government strongly protested to the United Kingdom and the competent maritime safety bodies and rejected the conduct of military exercises in the disputed area as an unacceptable provocation.
In addition to the actions described above, the United Kingdom periodically sends warships, some of them with nuclear capabilities, to “patrol” the South Atlantic (at this very moment, the destroyer HMS Dauntless is on its way to the Malvinas Islands); large numbers of military personnel are deployed on the Malvinas Islands; and, in early 2012, a media event surrounded the deployment to the Malvinas Islands of the second person in the line of succession to the British throne, in his capacity as a senior officer of the British Army, to perform air and sea
exercises.
In this connection, Argentina wishes to remind you of the report that was hand delivered to you on 10 February 2012, in which you were alerted to the United Kingdom’s increasing militarization of the South Atlantic, which is creating unnecessary tension and constitutes an affront to the entire region as reflected in the
many statements issued by the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Rio Group, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and others.
Once again, the Argentine Government reiterates its strong support for your continued good offices and gratefully acknowledges your valuable contribution in that regard. In this context, it wishes to state that the United Kingdom’s latest military actions in the South Atlantic demonstrate even more clearly the urgent need for the United Kingdom to heed the exhortations deriving from your mandate and to fulfil its obligation, as a Member State of the United Nations, to resolve disputes peacefully in accordance with the principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant resolutions.
