Malvinas gaff upsets UK
Britain has issued at least three formal diplomatic protests to the United States after a State Department official called the Falklands ‘Las Malvinas’, says The Times.
It claims that ‘demarches’ were made after a State Department spokesman answered the question of why the US was remaining neutral despite Britain’s long history of ownership of the Falkland Islands by saying “whatever you want to call them” and then calling them the “Islas Malvinas”.
London has grown increasingly worried about the United States’ attitude towards the Falklands.
Tensions increased after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turned what should have been a 10-minute encounter with Argentinian president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on the fringes of a conference in Uruguay into a two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires says The First Post.
At the meeting, Clinton encouraged negotiations between Britain and Argentina – something London had already ruled out.
The Obama administration is facing increasing criticism of its handling of the issue from American conservatives. Richard Perle, the assistant Secretary.
In 1982 when President Reagan provided intelligence to Britain during the Falklands War, he told the Times: “I think using the description Malvinas is offensive to British interests.”
On Monday (March 10) Wall Street Journal ran an editorial supporting the British position. It quoted a “senior Whitehall official” as saying: "After everything we have done with the Americans since September 11, the least we expected was a bit of moral support from Washington. But Mrs Clinton appears to have her own agenda on this issue."
