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Argentina stakes claim to seabed near Falklands
News Desk
The tension between London and Buenos Aires the capital of Argentina, is increasing following a highly provocative claim by the Argentina at the UN that has staked a claim to the 660,000 square miles of the South Atlantic seabed, immediately surrounding the Falkland Islands, and other British territories.
In a move which will put at risk the estimated 5 to 6 billion barrels of reachable oil if the UN grants Argentina rights over the seabed around the Falklands. The impact the UK will mean a diminished role in the South Atlantic if the UN upholds the Argentineans claim.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown who met with the Argentinean president Cristina Kirchner in Chile in the prelude to the G20 in London said:
"On sovereignty of the Falklands, there is nothing to discuss from our side."
However military analysts in the UK have said that given the current deployments of British troops and the economic crisis faced by the UK, the Falklands war that took place in 1982 "simply could not take place".
The Foreign Office is quoted in The Guardian:
"UK experts will be studying the Argentinian submission but we do not accept that there is any basis for the Argentine submission to include [claims for] the continental shelf generated by the Falklands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
"The UK government will itself be submitting data to the [commission] with respect to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands before [the deadline of] 13 May."
Diplomatic circles have said that the British submission would in effect "freeze the two rival submissions, preventing either nation from exploiting the seabed beyond 200 miles from the shoreline until diplomatic agreement is reached."
photo credit: Photographic Section, Mount Pleasant
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