By Facundo Rodríguez* (Article published on Clarín)
The Malvinas Question is the oldest and most important foreign policy issue in the Argentine Republic. In the 187 years that the sovereignty dispute has been going on, different options to solve the controversy have been considered, without any having produced results.
Argentina has attempted from the offer of international arbitration, an option systematically rejected by the United Kingdom, to facing bilateral negotiation in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations General Assembly, a path that it has followed for over 50 years, although only for 17 years it was able to address, unsuccessfully, the central point of the dispute: sovereignty.
The relationship with the United Kingdom went through several stages, sometimes as changing and contradictory as Argentine political life itself. Thus, the different governments have hardened or softened the position depending on the corresponding political color. This, without a doubt, has so far weakened the Argentine position.
A weakness that is evident not only in the bilateral relationship that, in the face of the pendular action of national politics, invites the British government to maintain its intransigence until a national government with a less firm sovereign vocation - and willing to “remove the obstacles” - takes office. , but also makes itself present to the other nations that see in the fluctuating Argentine actions a difficulty to strengthen the much-needed support.
However, last July 23 marked a new milestone in the long history of the dispute. For the first time, through a law passed unanimously by all political forces, the foundation stone for the establishment of a true State policy regarding the Malvinas Question has been laid.
It is a clear example of the maturity and will of the Argentine people, and the national political leadership, to be able to allow the debates and agree on short, medium and long-term strategies, which will allow us to advance in a coherent and coordinated way in the search of a solution to the sovereignty dispute, regardless of the political color of the government in office. A similar approach has been adopted by those nations that have tried to find a solution to their international disputes, such as Chile, Bolivia, and the Republic of Mauritius.
The creation of the National Council of Affairs relative to the Malvinas Islands, with the participation of the national Executive, the parliamentary blocs, veterans of the 1982 war, the academia, specialists in international law and the Province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands (to which the Islands belong), will generate the critical mass that adopts major definitions in the Malvinas Question.
This initiative will not resolve the sovereignty dispute per se, but it is an essential step towards that goal. The conviction that the Malvinas Question has finally become a State policy embraced by all the Argentine people will be the stimulus to break the inertia, and to face the major and inalienable goal of recovering the effective exercise of sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.
*Facundo Rodríguez is a lawyer and professor of international law at UBA-UP-ISEN.
