Malvinas Island

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

India reiterated support for international negotiations regarding a territorial matter between Argentina and the United Kingdom in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. 

• Falkland Islands, also called Malvinas Islands or Spanish Islas Malvinas, internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic Ocean.
• It lies about 300 miles northeast of the southern tip of South America and a similar distance east of the Strait of Magellan.
• The capital and major town is Stanley, on East Falkland, there are also several scattered small settlements as well as a Royal Air Force base that is located at Mount Pleasant.

History of the Falkland Islands

• In 1820 the Argentina Government, which had declared its independence from Spain in 1816, proclaimed its sovereignty over the Falklands.
• In early 1833, a British force expelled the few remaining Argentine officials from the island without firing a shot. In 1841, a British civilian lieutenant governor was appointed for the Falklands, and by 1885 a British community of some 1,800 people on the islands was self-supporting.
• Argentina regularly protested Britain’s occupation of the islands.
• After World War II (1939-45) the issue of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands shifted to the United Nations (UN) when, in 1964, the islands’ status was debated by the UN committee on decolonization.
• In 1965, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution inviting Britain and Argentina to hold discussions to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.
• These protracted discussions were still proceeding in February 1982, but in April Argentina’s military government invaded the Falklands.
• This act started the Falkland Islands War, which ended 10 weeks later with the surrender of the Argentine forces at Stanley to British troops who had forcibly reoccupied the islands.
• Although Britain and Argentina reestablished full diplomatic relations in 1990, the issue of sovereignty remained a point of contention.
• In the early 21st century Britain continued to maintain some 2,000 troops on the islands.
• In a referendum held in March 2013, islanders voted nearly unanimously to remain a British overseas territory.