Argentina celebrates diplomatic coup as Hillary Clinton calls for talks over Falklands [View All]

March 2, 2010
Argentina celebrates diplomatic coup as Hillary Clinton calls for talks over Falklands


http://www.timesonline.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/multimedia/archive/00691/Hillary_Clinton_691944a.jpg

(Picture Alliance/Photoshot)
Argentine President Fernandez de Kirchner and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
shake hands after a meeting at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires

Giles Whittell, Hannah Strange, Catherine Philp and Martin Fletcher in Stanley

Argentina was celebrating a diplomatic coup today in its attempt to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, after an extraordinary two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires between Hillary Clinton and the country’s President Fernández de Kirchner.

Responding to a request from Mrs Kirchner for “friendly mediation” between Britain and Argentina, Mrs Clinton said she agreed that negotiations were a sensible way forward and offered “to encourage both countries to sit down”.

Her intervention defied Britain’s long-standing position that there should be no negotiations unless the islands’ 3,000 inhabitants asked for them.

It was hailed in Buenos Aires as a major diplomatic victory, but condemned in the Falklands. Britain insisted there was no need for mediation as long as the islanders wanted to remain British. “We don’t think that’s necessary,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

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