FALKLAND ISSUE

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Context: The Government of Argentina will launch a campaign in India demanding negotiation with the United Kingdom to settle the territorial dispute over the Islas Malvinas that are known as the Falkland Islands in the UK.

• The initiative, which comes two days after the visit of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, coincides with the 40th anniversary of the conflict between the UK and Argentina, which ended with the re-establishment of British control over the archipelago.

What is the point of contention?

• The Falkland Islands, which are located in the south Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Argentina, have been colonised and conquered by Britain, France, Spain, and Argentina since the 18th century.
• The islands were uninhabited until the 1700s, when France established the first colony in 1764.
• When the British arrived the next year to seize the islands for themselves, it began a long-running conflict.
• The islands were mostly used and frequented by sealing and whaling ships by 1811, when colonial powers had left.
• However, in November 1820, an American privateer named David Jewett reignited a long simmering dispute by claiming control of the islands on behalf of Argentina, which had been mostly forgotten until then.
• Over a two-decade period, minor conflicts erupted between Argentina and the United Kingdom, with both gaining supremacy over the other, on alternate occasions, winning the war.
• In 1840, Falkland Islands became a Crown territory, and Britain dispatched Scottish settlers to develop a primarily pastoral community.
• The Falkland Islands were strategically significant to the United Kingdom, as evidenced by London's use of them as a military base in the South Atlantic Ocean throughout both World Wars.
• Following the end of WWII, the islands were once again a source of contention between the UK and Argentina, with both declaring sovereignty over the islands.

The Falklands conflict

• Argentina claims the Falkland Islands were stolen from it unjustly in 1833 and that it invaded the British colony in 1982.
• This incident sparked the Falklands War, which lasted just over three months and ended with the United Kingdom triumphing.
• Argentina has been engaged regionally and internationally to assert its stand on the sovereignty of these islands since the war's 40th anniversary this year.

What became of the island after WWII?

• Resolution 2065, a non-binding resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1965, acknowledged the existence of a sovereignty dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina over these islands and urged both governments to find a peaceful solution to the matter.
• Argentina and the United Kingdom held talks about the islands for the following three years, but they were stymied by immigrants in the Falklands who were originally from the United Kingdom, causing a halt to all negotiations between the countries until 1977.
• Because of financial difficulties in maintaining the islands, the United Kingdom's Thatcher government seriously contemplated giving them over to Argentina in the run-up to the conflict.
• Conflict between the two countries over these islands was simmering beneath the surface as these events unfolded.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/argentina-to-revive-falklands-issue-in-india/article65348964.ece