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SUPREME SOVEREIGNTY

Argentina asks UK to resume negotiations over Falklands

The Argentinian government has again asked the United Kingdom to restart negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, the Argentinian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
FALKLAND ISLANDS INHABITANTS ATTEND THE POLLS A sign on a minefield between Port Stanley and Goose Green, Falklands, 11 March 2013. (Photo: EPA / JAVIER LIZON)

The request to resume talks is the latest chapter in Argentina's long-held claim over the British-run islands, which included the 1982 war. The islands are located in the South Atlantic about 600 kilometres from the Argentinian mainland.

Argentina's Foreign Minister, Santiago Cafiero, "formulated a proposal to restart negotiations for sovereignty over the Falklands Question" in a meeting with his British counterpart James Cleverly during a summit in India, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Argentinian government also invited the UK to "hold a meeting to settle" the debate at the United Nations.

British foreign minister Cleverly responded in a tweet: "The Falkland Islands are British. Islanders have the right to decide their own future - they have chosen to remain a self-governing UK Overseas Territory."

A 2013 referendum on the islands, known as Las Islas Malvinas in Spanish, resulted in a 99.8% vote to remain British.

(Reporting by Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires; Additional Reporting by Alistair Smout in London; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Matthew Lewis.)

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