Argentine President Fernandez de Kirchner and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shake hands after a meeting at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires
Argentina celebrates diplomatic coup as Hillary Clinton calls for talks over FalklandsFrom The Times
March 3, 2010
Giles Whittell, Hannah Strange, Catherine Philp and Martin Fletcher in Stanley
Argentina was celebrating a diplomatic coup yesterday in its attempt to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, after a two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires between Hillary Clinton and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Responding to a request from Mrs Kirchner for “friendly mediation” between Britain and Argentina, Mrs Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she agreed that talks were a sensible way forward and offered “to encourage both countries to sit down”.
Her intervention defied Britain’s longstanding position that there should be no negotiations unless the islands’ 3,000 inhabitants asked for them. It was hailed in Buenos Aires as a major diplomatic victory, but condemned in the Falklands.
Britain insisted there was no need for mediation as long as the islanders wanted to remain British. “We don’t think that’s necessary,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
What began as a last-minute change to Mrs Clinton’s itinerary on her five-day sweep through Latin America has snowballed into a major diplomatic incident that has emboldened Argentina and caught the US largely un- awares. It could force Britain to reassess the level of international support for its efforts to develop a hydrocarbon industry in the Falklands basin.
When Mrs Clinton left Washington at the weekend she was scheduled to spend just ten minutes with Mrs Kirchner on the fringes of the inauguration of the new Uruguayan President in Montevideo. Argentina was not on her itinerary. The Argentine leadership lobbied hard for more respectful treatment and was rewarded with one of the most closely watched American visits since President Bush attended a summit in Buenos Aires in 2005.
The timing, days after Argentina secured unanimous backing from South American leaders for its demand for talks on the Falklands, meant that Mrs Clinton’s words were bound to be studied for any sign of a shift from America’s traditional stance on the islands — which has been to stay out of the argument over sovereignty but offer Britain vital logistical support.
Mrs Clinton’s meeting with the flamboyant but vulnerable Argentine leader ended amid smiles and laughter. She gave no sign of backing the British position on negotiations, saying instead: “We would like to see Argentina and the UK sit down and resolve the issues between them in a peaceful and productive way. We want very much to encourage both countries to sit down. We cannot make either one do so. We think it is the right way to proceed, so we will be saying this publicly.”
US officials said privately that British fears of being abandoned by the US over the Falklands were wildly overblown, but any hope on the part of the Administration of staying on the sidelines looked forlorn yesterday.
Héctor Timerman, the Argentine Ambassador to the US, said he had never seen “such substantial support” from Washington for his country’s claim. Mrs Clinton had not only offered to mediate but had also signalled that talks should be in line with existing UN resolutions, he insisted, referring to non-binding UN General Assembly resolutions from the 1970s that urge both sides to negotiate.
Ruperto Godoy, the official Argentine government spokesman on the islands, said the new pressure from Mrs Clinton was “very significant, very important” and would help Buenos Aires to force Britain to the negotiating table.
In the Falklands, reaction to the meeting ranged from dismay to fury. “It’s outrageous after all the support we have given the United States,” said Hattie Kilmartin, a sheepfarmer’s wife. “They are not looking at the people who are actually living here and what they want, and it’s crazy that they are even contemplating going against us.”
Jane Clement, who works at Stanley airport, said her reaction was “probably unprintable”. She added: “I’m very disappointed. I always thought we would have support.”
Tiffany Gillen, an American citizen living in the Falklands, wrote a letter of protest to President Obama, asking: “How can we not support these people, this country? Have we ceased to be allies of the United Kingdom?”
Mrs Clinton’s tour is intended to repair relations with a continent that has felt neglected and abused by its northern neighbour, and which hoped for transformed relations with the US under Mr Obama. Instead, he has angered many regional leaders by taking sides with the unpopular Honduran President in last year’s coup, and by boosting the US military presence in Colombia. Mark Weisbrot, of the Washington Centre for Economic and Policy Research, said Mrs Clinton’s visit was “all about damage control”. She may have controlled one source of damage, but she has sparked another.
Not-so-special relationship
American War of Independence, 1775-83 Tensions between American colonists and Great Britain spilt over into conflict in 1775 as British troops opened fire on militiamen in Lexington, Massachusetts. The eight-year war drained Britain of resources as it struggled to fight the French around the world and in 1781 British ground forces surrendered at Yorktown
Yalta, 1945 As the Second World War drew to a close Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, below with Joseph Stalin, staged a united front. But secretly, Churchill was livid as Roosevelt demanded Indian independence as a condition of US support
Suez crisis, 1956 Egypt, led by President Gamal Abdul Nasser, nationalised the Suez Canal, seizing assets of British shareholders in the Suez Canal Company. Britain joined with France and Israel in an invasion, expecting American support. Instead, the US, eager to keep Egypt as an ally against the Soviet Union, threatened to sell part of its sterling bond holdings, which would have forced a devaluation of the pound. Britain was forced to agree to a ceasefire that led to Anglo-French forces withdrawing
Grenada, 1983 The US invaded Grenada, a Commonwealth country, after a Marxist coup that toppled the pro-American Government. Margaret Thatcher lobbied President Reagan to call off the attack but was ignored
Al-Megrahi release, 2009 Families of US victims of the Lockerbie bombing were furious when the Scottish government released Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi on the ground of ill health. He returned to Libya and has defied doctors’ predictions that he would die by last October
Source: Times database
