GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Britain rejected Argentina’s request Thursday 14 June to resolve the conflict over the Falkland Islands through negotiations.
British Prime Minister David Cameron says there will be “absolutely no negotiation”, after Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez Kirchner passionately urged talks between the two countries at a meeting in New York of the United Nations decolonization committee.
Argentina invaded the south Atlantic islands, which it calls the Malvinas, in 1982, leading to a war in which over 600 Argentinian and 255 British troops were killed. Earlier this week, the Falklands’ Legislative Assembly announced that a popular referendum would take place early next year, in which the 2,900 inhabitants can decide if they would like to continue to be part of Britain.
Speaking at a Falkland Islands Government reception in London Thursday, the prime minister confirmed that the inhabitants of the islands should “determine their own future”.
