What is the current Argentine policy towards the Falkland Islands?
The war of 1982 did not settle the dispute, and the Argentine claim persists: no conceivable Argentine government will ever renounce it. Since 1982 Argentine governments have oscillated in their policy towards the islands, from a “charm offensive” towards the islanders and collaboration over fisheries and other matters under President Menem and Foreign Minister Guido di Tella, to a harder line under the present government of Cristina Kirchner. Her government has ended previous cooperation, has protested the current oil exploration and threatens some bureaucratic harrassment of shipping in the region, but has renounced any show of force in favour of a diplomatic offensive. She has had some success in the recent meeting of Latin American and Caribbean heads of state in Mexico, where they all supported the Argentine sovereignty claim. This contrasts with 1982, when a number of them, notably Chile, Brazil and Colombia, clearly opposed the Argentine recourse to force. It means that Great Br
