UK and US at odds over Falklands

Britain and the US are in for a serious diplomatic row in the light of the dispute between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands. 

Judging by reports in The Times, the British diplomats have at least three times expressed serious concerns to the US State Department over Washington’s response to the latest dispute over the Falkland Islands. To be more exact, the British authorities requested the US to clarify its position on the matter after a State Department spokesman pronounced, answering a question about the Falklands in February, “or the Malvinas, depending on how you see it”. The phrase, presumably meaning nothing to the US State Department, triggered British anger. For Britain, referring to the Falklands as Malvinas is same as calling the English Channel “la Manche”.

British officials in Washington say publicly that the Falklands issue has been raised only in “friendly conversations in the course of normal business” between the Embassy and the Administration. The issue is never raised at the official level. Given the situation, a statement in support of sovereignty talks that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made last week during her visit to Latin America raised eye brows in London. The recent moves by the US appear to have caused Downing Street to doubt Washington’s sincerity as to the so-called “special relations” between the two countries. Apparently, the Obama administration has been too dismissive of the points raised in London.

Buenos Aires has qualified Washington’s readiness to assist in settling the conflict as a diplomatic victory in the dispute with London. London, however, is convinced that there is no point in US mediatory services as long as three thousand Falklands residents wish to remain British. Clearly, the British authorities have no intention to discuss the sovereignty issue with Argentina in the foreseeable future.