He’s first minister to visit Argentina in 16 years
THE Chancellor was last night called on to stand up for the Falkland Islands as he prepared to make the first visit to Argentina by a British cabinet minister for 16 years.
Philip Hammond will travel to Buenos Aires tomorrow for talks with President Mauricio Macri and other ministers.
The visit, part of a four-day trip to South America, is designed to revive trade links that never recovered after the 1982 Falklands War. No British cabinet minister has visited Argentina since 2001, when Tony Blair made a symbolic stopover at the Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil. But relations have thawed following the election of President Macri, who has adopted a less confrontational stance over the Falklands, which Argentina claims sovereignty over.
The trip will provide a chance to drum up business for companies flying out with the Chancellor – such as the London Stock Exchange. But it comes just months after Argentina claimed Brexit could end Europe’s support for UK control of the Falklands, which it calls the Malvinas.
In 2015 Mr Hammond hit out at the then Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s aggressive claim on the Falklands, saying: ‘The bullying and harassment to which the islanders continue to be subjected is shameful - it’s counter-productive, it’s wrong and it must stop.
Tory MP Andrew Rosindell yesterday urged Mr Hammond to resist any attempt to barter away sovereignty in exchange for trade links.
Mr Rosindell, a member of the all-party Falklands group, said: ‘The Chancellor is right to drum up business for Britain in Argentina. But one thing that will never be for sale are the British Falkland Islands.
‘The sovereignty of the islands must not, under any circumstance, be up for discussion. They may figure on the Buenos Aires spreadsheet as an asset that it would like to bid for, but the rights and freedoms of the islanders must never be traded away.’
Mr Hammond held trade talks with the Brazilian government yesterday and will meet local business leaders in the country today before heading to Argentina.