Cameron rebuffs Argentina over Falklands

The Prime Minister said yesterday that the future of the Falklands was up to the people who live there – not Argentina.

David Cameron rebuffed claims by Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that Britain is a colonial power and that the islands should be handed over.

Mr Cameron told her she should “listen” to the result of a referendum to be held on the islands, and if the people chose to remain British they would have his “100 per cent” backing.

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“The future of the Falkland Islands should be determined by the Falkland Islanders themselves, the people who live there,” he said.

“Whenever they have been asked their opinion, they say they want to maintain their current status with the United Kingdom.

“They’re holding a referendum this year and I hope the president of Argentina will listen to that referendum and recognise it is for the Falkland Islanders to choose their future, and as long as they choose to stay with the United Kingdom they have my 100 per cent backing.”

Mr Cameron, on a visit to Preston, responded to questions on the islands after the row over their future was reignited by an open letter written by Ms de Kirchner, calling on him to relinquish British control.

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The letter, published as an advert in the Guardian, said Argentina was forcibly stripped of the Malvinas – the Argentinian name for the islands – in “a blatant exercise of 19th century colonialism”.

The 59-year-old president, who made several calls for the return of the islands during last year’s 30th anniversary of the two countries going to war, urged the Prime Minister to abide by United Nations resolutions she says back the Argentinian cause.

“One hundred and eighty years ago on the same date, January 3rd, in a blatant exercise of 19th century colonialism, Argentina was forcibly stripped of the Malvinas Islands, which are situated 14,000km (8,700 miles) away from London,” she said in the letter, copied to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

“The Argentines on the islands were expelled by the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom subsequently began a population implantation process similar to that applied to other territories under colonial rule.

“Since then, Britain, the colonial power, has refused to return the territories to the Argentine Republic, thus preventing it from restoring its territorial integrity.”