Cameron Urges Argentina to Respect Falklands Vote
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday urged Argentina to respect the wishes of the Falkland Islanders after they voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to remain a British territory.
Before the result, Buenos Aires had dismissed the vote as meaningless in international law, saying it would not affect its claims on the South Atlantic archipelago.
But Cameron said the 99.8 percent "yes" vote, on a turnout of 92 percent, was "the clearest possible result there could be" and Argentina should respect that.
"They should take careful note of this result. The Falkland Islanders couldn't have spoken more clearly," he said in a statement.
"They want to remain British and that view should be respected by everybody, including by Argentina."
He added that he was personally "delighted" at the outcome.
"The Falkland Islands may be thousands of miles away but they are British through and through and that is how they want to stay. People should know we will always be there to defend them," he said.
"We believe in self-determination. The Falkland Islanders have spoken so clearly about their future and now other countries right across the world, I hope, will respect and revere this very, very clear result."
Argentina, which invaded the islands in 1982 before its troops were ousted by a British task force after a short but bloody war, maintained its dismissive line on the vote.
"It's a maneuver with no legal value, which has neither been convened nor supervised by the United Nations," said Alicia Castro, Argentina's ambassador to London.
"We respect their way of life, their identity. We respect that they want to continue being British, but the territory they inhabit is not British," she told Buenos Aires radio station La Red.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/75242 |