Obama backs UK over Falklands

HAVE YOUR SAY

16 March 2012

I wonder if President Obama will mention it to Hillary Clinton.
Graham - High Wycombe

16 March 2012

I can see this kicking off properly 'when' we place a rig down there and actually start drilling for oil.

I can see blockades and harrasment / sabotage coming from Argentina.
HamishUK - GB

16 March 2012

The headline reads slighty more positive than the guts of the article, but Obama certainly should support the UK positon. In the middle of the 19th century, Argentina commissioned two national maps to deliniate it's territories (as it deemed them)including 'desputed' areas. The Falklands were not included on either of them.
Gavin Gordon - Chichester

16 March 2012

Timerman's statement, "The gas and oil that is found in the South Atlantic belongs to the Argentinian people" is a rather all encompassing remark isn't it? So now they claim the entire South Atlantic is their territory? Perhaps they might try searching for oil in their own recognised territorial waters to start with!

It's amazing that they appear to overlook the benefits they could share, rather than their blatant disregard for the island's resident population. They appear not to understand basic human rights, nor the British reaction to threats to its people, wherever they might be.
Hereman - Wirral, England

16 March 2012

Hereman - Wirral, England

The irony is that there is plenty of oil within the Argentine EEZ off the cost of Tiera del Fuego but the government has meddled so much with the oil companies they have largely pulled out and stopped drilling new wells. Yet they complain about the Falklands discovering oil within their own EEZ as stealing! Tell them to get lost I say!
Graham - High Wycombe

16 March 2012

attack them now, destroy argentina and rebuild the empire
scott - empire awaits us

16 March 2012

I do not think the situation has changed. Obama has not come out in a press conference and told the world the USA supports Britain. He has allegedly told Cameron the US is happy with the way things are.

That is hardly glowing support for either side. The US just pay lip service to both sides to maintain relations.

And Cameron hardly comes accross as a great leader by saying that in my opinion.

The Falklands are clearly British.
Argentina has no case under international law, so Cameron does not need to say that.

The facts speak for themselves and the world should see Britain is strong enough to defend its interests without Cameron trying to score points like this.

I'd laugh my head off if Obama now came out and contradicted him.
Daniele Mandelli - Guildford

16 March 2012

The comment of Support for "Status Quo" is enough from a man who has not been supportive of UK.
Now he does need us, and his silence on this matter will be welcomed.
argentina claiming South Atlantic as though Chile does not exist is very frustrating and I understand the comment of colonialism used by Cameron. Time to drill I think and lets see the Falklanders earn a few bob, and be able to improve their lot. Good on them, the people (though I do not think can hold us to ransom), have our support and best wishes.
Degradable - UK

16 March 2012

Wouldve meant more if Obama had said it himself, despite the fact that we shouldnt need it US backing would be helpful. I for one do not apretiate the US being so quiet.
David Forster - Durham

16 March 2012

I am afraid that there is valdity to their claims what so ever. Very briefly with the permission of the British the Argentine they were allowed to set up a port on the Falklands, by which time the islands had been claimed by both the British and the French and there were plaques there proclaiming this. From the British giving them permission the new settlers from the Argentine tried to lay claim to the islands, so the British turfed them off again. There has never been an idigenous Argentinian population of the Falklands, that has been assumed by British settlers who have been there for 170 years. The first person to set foot on the islands was British in 1690 .

What is clear is that in claiming these islands plus South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands, the latter being barely habitable is that the Argentine's intention is really military aggrandisment . It would give them virtually their own private piece of the South Atlantic and fullfill the latin desire to 'look big' to their neighbours
Vernon Yarker - Maldon/England

16 March 2012

The White House just denied Cameron's assertion and confirmed their neutrality on the issue. It's about time the UK abandons its colonialist policies and negotiates for the return of the island's sovereignty to Argentina. The dispute is not going away any time soon. criminal courts
sergio - Miami

16 March 2012

Aaagh! Why do I get the feeling that the yanks are, again, going to need our support in some foray or other in the not to distant future??
Not that I object .. provided their interests are also our interests .. and that is very often the case.
Norman - UK

16 March 2012

A couple of Sub with thomahawk missile off there coast will shut them up, any sign of an invasion take out all the closes military base to the falkland islands this would slow them down, push ahead on the new carriers as i would trust the french to help us, even though they have sign a military pact
peterd - durham

16 March 2012

Drilling has already happened and commercial quantities of oil have been discovered. Rockhopper Exploration are currently reported to be negotating with a number of major oil companies to strike a deal to develope the Sealion oilfield to production.

It appears that the current posturing is an attempt to hinder this process.

The last round of exploration was completed as planned and without any significant hinderance from it's belligerent neighbour. It also appears that in addition to the Sealion oilfield, Rockhopper has other unappraised disoveries some of which are potentially just as big.

The oil reserves 'belong' to the oil companies ho hold te exploration liceces issued by te Falkand Islands government and any revenues raised as a result of oil production woud be collected by the same. The islands are a self-governing British Overseas Territory, with the United Kingdom responsible for its defence and foreign affairs.

Two other companies, Falklands oil and gas & Borders and Southern, are currently exploring in a different area of the waters around the Isles; initial seismic testing show that this area is potentially up to ten times larger in terms of oil reserves. Essentially the waters around the Isles culd be several times larger than the entire North Sea in terms of oil reserves.

Modern methods of oil extraction and the increasing price of oil make the oilfield's remote location largely irrelavent - it's most likely that production would go ahead without huge infrastructure being necessary or economically desireable on the islands.

In the light of the apparent failure of Argentina's Government to develope it's country's own resources, the naked military aggression of the early 1980's and it's smaller neghbour's abundat oil resources, it's current rhetoic based on spurious historical claims and accusations of colonialism seem unfounded at best.

At worst Kirchner's government appear stupidly spiteful and woefully short sighted.

Surely the ultimate failure of those charged with the stewardship of a land is the failure to serve the best interests of it's people.

It is to be hoped that the Argentine Government reverse their current position and find benefit from the naural resources of their county, ultimately fulfilling their charge to bring prosperty to their peoples, foster fraternity with their neighbours and maintain, for their part, peace in the region.
Paul - United Kingdom

17 March 2012

Mr Cameron is trying to obfuscate. The Obama administration does not support 'British rule on the Falkland Islands.' The US recognizes the de facto UK administration of the islands, but takes no position regarding the sovereignty claims of either party. The US government supports UK and Argentine cooperation on practical matters and urges a peaceful resolution to the overall issue."The United States recognizes the de facto UK administration of the islands, but takes no position regarding the sovereignty claims of either party.

The current US position is consistent with UN declarations on the issue. The Falklands is listed by the UN as a territory which needs to be de-colonised by the UK. The UN has called for discussions between the UK and Argentina to achieve the de-colonisation of the Falklands.

Unfortunately, the UK has chosen to turn a deaf ear to those requests. Mr Cameron can hardly expect Mr Obama to go along with the UK's self-serving intransigence on this issue.
FurtherBeyond - Brisbane Australia

17 March 2012

Let's hear it from the horses mouth, just like we heard 'Malvinas' from it!
James - Uk

18 March 2012

This just shows what Cameron really is, a politial lightweight with delusions of adequacy. Obama is not being as pro-British as he should be, considering the support he asks of us.
Lots of Status Quo though . . . if you like that sort of thing.
Ian R - Durham

20 March 2012

@FurtherBeyond

I sense more Anglo-phobia in your remarks than any other kind of sense!
So you advocate throwing the inhabitants who have lived there for almost 180 years off the islands ? Or perhaps force them to relinquish their British citizenship ? AND give the islands over to a country which has never had Sovereignty previously!
Argentina should pay more attention to its own indigenous people, the Argentine Amerindians and perhaps give the country back to them !
The Falkland Islanders & the Brits should never give in to the bully-boy tactics of the Argentine government. Even the Americans have a better claim to the islands than Argentina.
It is crazy to allow any country in this 21st century the right to begin a new type of colonization, which is exactly what this ex-Spanish colony is attempting to do!
Here is a principle of freedom and self-determination which truly deserves fighting for; preferably a political fight but militarily if needs be.
Jon - Toronto

21 March 2012

How about kicking the aussies out of their, sorry, the aborigines country then, after all, they aren't true natives of the land. Just another bunch of people sent there by those pesky Brits back in the day!!

As for south america, do we really need them?
JC - UK

23 January 2013

The whole world knows Falklands are argentine. Cameron is just trying to evade local economic problems with that kind of illusion just like Tatcher did.
Leo