Our large South American neighbour should not be allowed to force its colonial ambitions on us

Simon Jenkins fails to acknowledge that the Falklands have moved on (The Falklands can no longer remain as Britain's expensive nuisance, 26 February). Argentina's endeavours to force its colonial ambitions on a small country, against the freely expressed wishes of its people, ignore our basic right to self-determination.

"Anyone who studies the tortuous history and law of the Falklands will know that Argentina's claim to the islands was certainly strong," Jenkins says. But their claim to a territory 300 miles away is neither logical nor valid. Falklands inhabitants did not replace an indigenous population because there was none. The islands were claimed by Britain in 1765, long before Argentina existed as a country, and have been permanently settled since 1833. Some families, like mine, can now boast eight or nine generations on the islands. The Falklands are an overseas territory of the UK, with internal matters governed by a democratically elected legislative assembly, of which I am a member.

Jenkins talks of Argentina regularly protesting about their rights to the islands to "the UN's decolonisation committee, supported by other post-imperial states in South and North America". But the annual vote in this committee is a sham ? the Islands are not a colony and the debate there is therefore an irrelevance. More relevant are the European convention on human rights and the international covenant on civil and political rights, both of which endorse the principles of self-determination.

We have repeatedly attempted to work with Argentina, and agreed a joint declaration on co-operation on oil exploration in 1995. This was renounced by Argentina in 2007. Co-operation on sustainable fisheries through a joint commission was a way for the Falklands and Argentina to conserve South Atlantic stocks through the exchange of scientific data and the setting of sustainable catch levels. Argentina not only withdrew from the commission but set unsustainably high quotas in some fish stocks.

Jenkins states that "Argentina has not threatened military action over the Ocean Guardian" (the oil rig currently drilling in our waters). But it is clear that our large neighbour is attempting to achieve by economic warfare what it failed to achieve by military means.

It has threatened sanctions against companies holding licences to fish in Falklands waters and tried to exclude our representatives from participating at international conferences. It prevents charter flights from other South American countries flying to the islands, and is now attempting to disrupt our oil exploration by threats to hinder shipping. These are hardly the acts of a friendly and peaceful neighbour.

We remain eternally grateful to those who liberated us from the Argentine aggression in 1982. By referring to that time as "the silliest of wars", Jenkins insults their memory and diminishes their incredible achievement.

Jenkins believes us to be an "expensive legacy of Empire". He should be aware that the Islands are self-financing ? except for defence, which is purely because of the continued Argentine claim to my country. And our government has expressed the wish to contribute more to these costs, should oil be discovered in commercial quantities.

In 1982 the war with Argentina put the then-Labour leader in an awkward bind. Surely the islanders' underdog arguments should still appeal to the left today

Michael Foot's death inevitably makes me think again of the Falklands war, though the islands have been in the headlines recently over the renewed Anglo-Argentinian row over the start of drilling for oil in south Atlantic Falklands waters.

What should we think in 2010 about the respective Argentinian and British claims to sovereignty of this small landmass off the Argentinian coast, which has been disputed for a good 200 years?

Back in 1982 the war put Footie in an awkward bind. But, West Country patriot that he was, the then-Labour leader nailed his colours to the flag and backed Margaret Thatcher's dispatch of the 40,000-strong task force that took the islands back ? aware as Foot must have been that his own election hopes would be sunk along with the Argentinian cruiser Belgrano and several Royal Navy warships.

It was one of the most tense and extraordinary periods I have witnessed in parliament, starting on a quiet Friday morning ? 2 April ? when first news of the long-feared invasion came through and ministers refused to confirm it to an increasingly angry House of Commons until after the house had risen at 2pm.

It would not happen like that nowadays. The house would probably not be sitting, be poorly attended and more docile. But equally, the 24/7 global media village would make it harder to deny the facts.

Next day the Commons met in a rare Saturday session, the die was cast ? with Foot's eloquent support in standing up to rightwing military dictators ? and, after Lord Carrington resigned for Foreign Office failures, the fleet sailed.

Like the Doge of Venice's attack on the Barbary pirates in the 1780s it was the last quixotic twitch of a great maritime empire's command of the seas. What Britain's military does today is mostly done by its armies.

But until the fall of Port Stanley 74 days later ? 14 June ? it dominated events, with no one quite certain of the outcome until close to the end. A relieved Thatcher announced the surrender to a crowded House at 10 o'clock at night (that wouldn't happen either). There were rather more PoWs than expected, she joked. Everyone chuckled.

As Simon Jenkins wrote the other day there won't be a war this time, but Argentina ? poorer and less arrogant than in the 80s ? is gathering its neighbours as allies and is assured of US neutrality.

Does that matter? Perhaps not much. It was the official position last time when Ronald Reagan overruled expedient state department advice and helped his friend Margaret in several crucial ways. Few Argentinian troops have died in Helmand province lately.

Jenkins regards the retention of the islands as an expensive anachronism which should be negotiated away via the UN and the oil exploited under licence. That view reflects both a High Tory pessimism and high rationality which he often embraces, a tad dismissive of economic considerations ? and emotion too.

Some boisterous Guardian readers put him right in the letters column.

Back in 1981 Nicholas Ridley, then a Thatcherite junior foreign minister, came to the Commons with a leaseback deal as part of a general budget cut that would later trigger the war by announcing the withdrawal of HMS Endurance, the sole Royal Navy warship in the region.

Ridley was inept and MPs ? Labour as well as what Jenkins calls "neo-imperialist rightwingers" ? were furious with him. After all, Argentina was then a nasty military dictatorship which had launched a "dirty war" against its own domestic critics. Thousands disappeared.

As I joked at the time, defeat meant Argentinians got their elected government back, but so did we. It was the making of the Iron Lady and stands as a lesson to misogynists everywhere: don't think they're pathetic just because they're girls.

In 2010 some elements of the current drama repeat themselves. This time Argentina's crisis is economic, this time the female leader is in Buenos Aires: President Cristina Elizabet Fernández de Kirchner (married to ex-and-possibly-future president Néstor Kirchner), this time Britain is again in economic doldrums, its army overstretched abroad, its navy smaller still.

Neither country can possibly want another war and their bellicose media would probably relish a jingoistic clash of words from the safety of their editors' armchairs. My hunch is that the Ocean Guardian (no relation) will be allowed to search for the goodies undisturbed and that the issue will only get really tricky if it finds them.

Argentina needs extra revenue even more than the Brits do. One of the richest countries in the world until the 1930s ? when it slipped towards Peronista populism ? it has been overtaken by both Brazil and Chile, Brazil finally emerging as a major player 100 years after it could have done.

Buenos Aires's latest crisis (unless you count expected 31% inflation) arises from litigation by unpaid creditors a decade after Argentina's $100bn default. Cristina Kirchner decided to raid the reserves to pay them off and was forced to sack Martín Redrado, governor of the central bank, when he resisted.

His successor, Mercedes Marcó del Pont, is seen as more pliable. The country's problems sound a bit like Greece's and are deeply ingrained ? far more serious than ours, by the way, before you rush to compare them.

But what of territorial claims far from home? Jenkins compares the Falklands with Hong Kong, which Mrs Thatcher negotiated back to China ? though reluctantly; she scarcely had a choice.

Like Britain, which has tiny imperial scraps of land, some quite useful, all over the world, the French retain St Pierre and Miquelon at the mouth of the St Lawrence without Canada feeling humiliated. The Americans have lots of great significance in the Americas and the Pacific. Russia, which expanded across a continent ? just as the Americans did ? in the 19th century, clings to anomalies too.

Gibraltar is the one that matters most to us because of its immense strategic significance. It has been held since the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which, incidentally, is also the basis of Argentinian claims to you-know-where.

The locals are as fiercely British as the 2,500 Falklanders, though no longer as well-protected by the garrison. I doubt if much will change soon between EU partners Spain and Britain: Spain's southern flank is messy, since it too holds enclaves, in north Africa.

We'll leave the Channel Islands, with their French heritage, the last relics of William the Conquerer's Duchy of Normandy ? lost by Bad King John ? to one side today. No oil there, only oily banks.

But it underlines the extent to which geography and rationality play only a part in these matters, though any geography that yields oil, gas or a toehold to the Antarctic should not be lightly handed over.

And, of course, Falklanders who remind visiting reporters that the islands were empty when their ancestors arrived have a point. It's not as if many Argentinians would want to emigrate there either.

"We didn't murder the indigenous population to settle here, unlike those Argies" should have some residual leftwing underdog appeal, shouldn't it? The argument works in other parts of the world, not least in Latin America, where the locals have been fighting back.

Come to think of it, aren't most Argentinians Europeans anyway? Yes, 86% nowadays ? some 60% of them at least part-Italian. Well, we wouldn't hand the islands back to Silvio Berlusconi, would we? To Fabio Capello? We'll let him know after the World Cup.

While Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva may be correct that the British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands is geographically illogical (Latin American leaders back Argentina over Falklands oil drilling, 24 February), his argument is flawed. The Falkland Islands have been British for the past 177 years, and the 2,900 people who live there are British citizens. Islanders are eligible by law to take Argentinian citizenship, but few choose to do so. Unless those living on the islands declare a wish to give up their British identities and accept Argentinian sovereignty, the Falkland Islands will remain British.

Emma Parkhouse

St Albans, Hertfordshire

? It should be remembered that, just prior to the Falklands war, the Thatcher government had made the citizens of the islands "second-class". All education, travel and health services were provided by Argentina. In fact, had General Galtieri not pre-empted matters, the UK could have petitioned him to adopt the islands. The hypocrisy of those who now claim that we "look after our own" is mind-boggling.

Dr MA Sharp

Coventry

? Simon Jenkins is right to highlight the potential of "oil rig diplomacy" to open the way to a lasting settlement in the Falklands dispute (The Falklands can no longer remain as Britain's expensive nuisance, 26 February). However, the leasehold arrangement he recommends has some tricky aspects to it. Once territorial sovereignty is ceded to Argentina, that country has the legal right to claim an exclusive economic zone of 200 miles offshore for the purposes of mining, fishing and oil exploration. At present Britain enjoys this privilege, and is making full use of it to facilitate drilling operations. Whether these maritime rights could be included in any leaseback arrangement ? and whether in any case Argentina would agree ? seems highly unlikely. The international court of justice is also reluctant to adjudicate on issues involving sovereignty, so that the rival claims of both countries to the continental shelf remain "frozen". If the Falklands is indeed set to become the hub of a new South Atlantic oil field then an international conference to break the deadlock seems vital.

Phil Cohen

London

? Simon Jenkins's critique of Britain's continued occupation of the Falkland Islands misses at least two significant factors. One of the main reasons for retaining the Falkland Islands, even before the war in 1982, was the Antarctic dimension. Britain retains a significant claim to the Antarctic and the Falklands remains a useful gateway to the region. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty and its suspension of territorial claims may not last for ever. Argentina and Chile claim a similar portion of the polar continent.

Second, the relationship with Gibraltar is also worth pondering. Both the Falkland and Gibraltarian communities have been extremely effective in mobilising political opinion and support for the position of upholding the principle of self-determination. And of course, Jenkins does not acknowledge the role of war memories; giving up the Falklands ? even via leaseback ? will not appear an attractive political option for any government.

Professor Klaus Dodds

Royal Holloway, University of London

? Simon Jenkins is wrong to suggest that "distant colonies are an anachronism". On the contrary, the distant colonies of the US and its allies are all too prominent a feature of today's world, from the US "unincorporated territory" of Guam to the effectively colonised territories of cIraq and Afghanistan. And, as Jenkins points out, covert backing from the US may well have been decisive in Britain's military victory in 1982. The fact that the US currently has the comfortable option of "conspicuously refusing to side with Britain" on such "post-imperial issues" should not be taken as an indication that the US standpoint is any more benign. All it indicates is that Britain, by continuing with its ridiculous antics in Argentine waters, serves as an invaluable stalking horse for its US masters to hide behind.

Dr Hugh Goodacre

Senior lecturer, University of Westminster

Hillary Clinton's offer to mediate in the UK-Argentina dispute caused excitement, but the US doesn't care about the Falklands

There was a telling exchange about the nature of relations between the US and Argentina at a state department briefing in Washington last week. The assistant secretary of state responsible for Latin American, Arturo Valenzuela, was talking to journalists when he was asked why Hillary Clinton was not including Argentina on her extensive trip round South America this week.

He replied that these schedules were always complicated, mentioning flight times. The reporter pointed out that flying time between Uruguay, where she was spending her first day, and Buenos Aires was only 10 minutes.

The real reason is that relations are strained. The Argentinian president, Cristina Kirchner, last week criticised Barack Obama, saying his presidency had been a disappointment in Latin America.

"I must say that there is a sense throughout the region of lost opportunities. No one expected a prince on a white charger. We had hoped, yes, for a sense of realism," she said.

Although Clinton changed her mind and did visit Argentina, the two countries are not close, certainly not close enough for Washington to intervene on the side of Argentina in the Falklands dispute over exploitation of its energy resources.

When Clinton on Monday offered to mediate in the dispute, there was excitement in the press on both sides of the Atlantic. Was the US at long last taking the side of a country on the American continent? Had Washington finally decided that the Falklands was a legacy of colonialism?

The concern was reinforced by comments last week by a senior member of the state department who referred to the "Malvinas", the politically loaded Argentinian name for the Falklands. The whole row has turned into a minor triumph for the Argentinian government, at least in getting the issue into the media.

The British government feels Washington could have handled the presentation and timing of its remarks better, and that the "Malvinas" remark was unhelpful. But it says it is relaxed, seeing as this as a presentational problem rather than a change in policy by Washington.

Clinton's comments mark no real change in the substance of US policy towards the Falklands. The US policy is one of neutrality, as it has been since the end of the second world war, and the offer to act as a mediator goes back decades. Even around the time of the 1982 Falklands war, the US president Ronald Reagan wrote to Thatcher making an offer similar to Clinton's. During the war, the US maintained a public front of neutrality while behind-the-scenes it helped British forces with intelligence.

Last week, the state department spokesman, Philip Crowley, made a statement about the Falklands almost identicial to the one Clinton made. He said the US was neutral and recognised sovereignty over the islands, supported dialogue and if asked to mediate, the US would consider it.

The reality is that the US does not care about the Falklands. The state department section responsible for the western hemisphere may do but the other parts of the state department ? and the White House ? do not: they are more concerned about maintaining a good relationship with the UK and the issues that bind them, mainly Iran and Afghanistan.

Part of the reason that Clinton has gone to Latin America is to see President Lula of Brazil. The US is trying to get the UN security council to adopt new sanctions against Iran and Brazil, which is on the 15-member council, is reluctant to back sanctions.

The British government rejected Clinton's offer to mediate, and the US will accept that, more concerned about conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia than the islands of the South Atlantic.

US secretary of state says UK and Argentina should talk 'in a peaceful and productive way'

Hillary Clinton has said the US is ready to help Argentina and Britain resolve tensions over the ownership of the Falkland Islands.

The US secretary of state is in Buenos Aires as part of a five-day South American tour which will also see her visit earthquake-hit Chile.

Tensions between Argentina and the UK have flared in recent weeks over British oil exploration in the islands' waters.

Clinton met Argentinian president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Montevideo, Uruguay, yesterday, before flying to Buenos Aires for further talks today.

Clinton said: "We are not interested in, and have no real role in, determining what [Britain and Argentina] decide between the two of them. What we want to do is facilitate them talking to each other."

She and Kirchner were in Uruguay to attend the inauguration of President José Mujica. Clinton had reportedly only intended to spend 10 minutes talking with Kirchner in Montevideo, before a late change in travel plans saw her depart for Buenos Aires.

Kirchner has been pushing Britain to engage in talks over the Falklands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, since the arrival of the Ocean Guardian oil rig in the islands' waters.

"What we have requested is mediation as a friendly country of both Argentina and the United Kingdom," Kirchner said.

She added that Argentina wants those the talks to take place within a framework established by the United Nations following the 1982 conflict. "That's it. The only thing we have asked for is just to have them sit down at the table. I don't think that's too much."

Desire Petroleum, a small British company, started drilling about 60 miles north of the islands on 22 February. Geologists say there could be up to 60bn barrels of oil in the area, although sceptics doubt its commercial viability.

Talking to reporters en route to Buenos Aires last night, Clinton agreed on the need for talks between the countries, but did not spell out what role the US would play in any discourse.

"We would like to see Argentina and the UK sit down and resolve the issues between them in a peaceful and productive way," she said.

Argentina has been stepping up its diplomatic offensive in the last few days. Last week a summit of 32 countries in Mexico endorsed an Argentinian document accusing Britain of flouting international law by permitting drilling to begin. On Thursday Argentina appealed to the United Nations to put pressure on Britain over the islands' sovereignty.

The UN has called for talks between the two countries, but would be unable to intervene without the backing of the security council, where the UK would be able to veto substantive resolutions.

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