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| Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands |
We walked down Ross Road, Stanley’s Main Street. What you see above is all there is to Stanley. Ross Road is pubs, cafes, chandleries, farm equipment, bodegas. Some touristy stuff, but not a lot: the tourist season is the short summer, December to February and even then it’s the occasional Antarctica-bound cruise ships, like ours with only 130 passengers.
We found the people super friendly. They are all British of the “more Brits than the Brits” variety. We asked them the obvious question, which they answered patiently. “Would you rather be under British or Argentinian control? Or none?”. To which the inevitable answer was “British”. Not Argentina and also not “none”, for they couldn’t exist as an independent entity.
The Falkland islanders made this thumpingly clear in 2013 in a referendum: 99.8% voted to stay British. That’s pretty much every man, woman and child. The only “no” votes were, like, two sheep and an Argentinian dog.
All that is ignored by Argentina and their Chinese shills.
At the UN committee meeting on Tuesday, [Chinese ambassador] Geng Shuang said Beijing “firmly supported” Argentina’s claim over the disputed territory and advocated for the settlement of disputes through peaceful negotiations. [here]
You know what would keep the peace? You guys, Argentina and China, giving up on the bullyboy rhetoric. Stop with the Dog-whistle war sounds. As in the threatening, the passive-aggressive, “settlement of disputes through peaceful negotiations”. Give that up, that’ll do to keep the peace. Also: what’s the “dispute”, ambassador Geng?? That was settled by Maggie Thatcher back in 1982. 41 years ago!
Note that China here is going against its own principles of “non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries”, as the Falklands are a settled issue: they belong to Britain. Their status is an internal affair of the U.K.
Argentina compares the Falklands to Ukraine:
Argentina’s secretary of Malvinas affairs Guillermo Carmona flagged last year that the South American country intended to “take advantage” of the geopolitical climate – including the war in Ukraine – to bolster international support for its claim. [here]
What’s the analogy? Presumably that Argentina, with the Falklands, is plucky Ukraine, while Britain is the horrid Russia. But how can that be? Surely the correct analogy is Falklands as Ukraine and Argentina as drooling wolf Russia, none too subtly suggesting military attack on the Falklands to bring it back to the fold. We have to keep reminding ourselves of that 99.8% figure, that the actual residents, on the actual islands, with actual lives, and actual freedoms, want, to a man, woman and sheep (nearly all sheep), to remain British. That’s the reality and that’s what should drive all our thinking on the issue. And has been that way since the 18th Century.
China’s support is hypocritical and opportunist. It thinks it gives its claim to Taiwan more credence. It doesn’t. Just as the Argentinian junta has never had control of the Falklands, the CCP has never had control of Taiwan. The Taiwanese aren’t quite as unanimous as the Falklanders in wanting to maintain the status quo, but still ~75% want to.
There is no Falklands “issue” here to be “addressed”, peacefully or otherwise. And smearing everyone as “colonialist” is a worn out, lazy trope. The Falkland Islands are British. The last time Argentina tried to snatch them away in 1982, they were soundly beaten. How about they take the L and plod on home.
ADDED: By the way: not only should we ignore the regular sabre-rattling by these two authoritarians, could we also stop saying “the Falklands, also known as the Malvinas”? Would China like it if we kept saying “Xinjiang, also known as East Turkistan”? To repeat, the status of the Falklands is settled. And good on James Cleverly, the British Foreign Minister for saying so robustly.
