MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel has condemned the country’s recently achieved agreements with the United Kingdom on the Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas, saying they contradict Argentina’s interests.
«The arrangements, jointly proposed with the UK, are contradicting the interests of our nation… Are we being taken for fools? They are getting material benefits… while we are being offered crumbs in the form of emotional consolation,» Villarruel wrote on X late on Friday.
Earlier in the week, Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy met in New York and agreed on organizing trips for relatives of soldiers killed in the Falklands War to the islands to visit their graves as well as to take specific measures to preserve fisheries on the islands, to improve transport links, including by restoring the weekly flight from the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo to the Falklands.
In March 2013, the islands held a referendum on the status of the territory, with 99.8% of residents having preferred to remain a UK overseas territory. Argentina has not recognized the voting results. Tensions over the territory intensified in 2015 after British oil companies discovered new oil and gas deposits near the islands.
