1820-2020: Bicentennial of the first raising of the Argentine flag in the Malvinas Islands

From the very beginning of its existence as an independent nation in 1810, Argentina continued to exercise its jurisdiction over the vast territory that Spain had administered until then, including the Malvinas Islands, through the enactment of legislation and the establishment of legal and administrative structures, including the promotion of the development of commercial activities, the regulation of the exploitation of resources, the concession of lands, and the settlement of population in the islands.

With that purpose, on November 6, 1820, the Argentine Navy Colonel David Jewett took solemn possession of the Malvinas Islands in the name of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. In a public ceremony in front of the captains and crews of the vessels of various nationalities anchored in Puerto Soledad, Colonel Jewett raised the Argentine flag, fired a 21-gun salute and read a proclamation, making it known that, among other things, the Buenos Aires authorities had decided to put an end to the unrestricted hunting of marine mammals.

The formal taking of possession of the Malvinas was a manifestation, of an official and public nature, of the effective exercise of Argentine sovereignty which was widely disseminated in America and Europe, and was not contested by the United Kingdom or any other foreign power.

This event is part of the series of acts carried out by the young Argentine State that show the continuity of the effective occupation of the Malvinas Islands and its exercise of sovereignty, inherited from Spain, culminating in the creation, in 1829, of the Political and Military Commandancy of the Malvinas Islands and the islands adjacent to Cape Horn in the Atlantic Ocean.

This effective exercise of sovereignty was interrupted on January 3, 1833, when the United Kingdom usurped the Islands, expelling the legitimate Argentine authorities and the population that had settled there, disrupting our country's territorial integrity. This act of force was immediately and permanently protested and has never been consented by any Argentine Government. Since then and until the present day the Islands are the subject of a sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom, recognized by the United Nations through Resolution 2065 (XX) of the General Assembly.

In compliance with that resolution, starting in 1966 and for 16 years, both countries held negotiations to find a solution to the sovereignty dispute. Despite countless invitations made by Argentina and the exhortation of the United Nations, the United Kingdom systematically refuses to resume negotiations on sovereignty. The need to resume bilateral negotiations as soon as possible has been reiterated by other 9 resolutions of the General Assembly and 38 resolutions of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, and by the international community through numerous declarations of multilateral fora such as the Organization of the American States, the Group of 77 and China, the Ibero-American Summits, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the MERCOSUR, the MERCOSUR Parliament, the Africa-South America Summit and the South America-Arab States Summit.

The recovery of the full exercise of our sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas, respecting the lifestyle of its inhabitants and in compliance with international law, is a permanent and non-renounceable goal of all Argentines, as established in the First Transitory Clause of our National Constitution.

At the 200-year anniversary of the taking of possession of the Malvinas Islands, the Argentine Republic reaffirms, once again, its sovereign rights over the Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces, as well as its firm willingness to resume, as soon as possible, sovereignty negotiations with the United Kingdom in order to find a definitive solution to this anachronistic colonial situation.