[BITList] Argentina turns to Wales for help with Falkland Islands

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why is argentina harping on about the falklands again?

ct



Argentina turns to Wales for help with Falkland Islands
Argentina has held talks with Welsh nationalists about trying to win support among British MPs for the country's bid to win sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
 
Plaid Cymru leader Elfyn Llwyd MP Photo: PA
By Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent
10:00PM BST 20 Jun 2012
157 Comments
Diplomats from the Argentinian embassy in London invited senior representatives from Plaid Cymru for talks in the past six months.

Elfyn Llwyd MP, the Westminster leader of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party, met two senior Argentinian diplomats for coffee.

Mr Llwyd confirmed the meeting had taken place, but he said he firmly rebuffed the approach to join Argentina’s campaign.

He told The Daily Telegraph that he had “no interest” in helping the South American country with its battle to win support for its claim to the islands.

He said: "I expressed no interest in getting involved in this fraught matter. They were trying to get me to introduce them to sympathetic MPs."

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The Falklands Islands Government is planning to hold a referendum next year in a bid to see off the increasingly aggressive claim from Argentina on the islands.

Buenos Aires is thought to have been trying to capitalise on historical links between Wales and Argentina.

In Patagonia, in the south of the country, a dialect of the Welsh language is spoken among thousands of expat descendants of Welsh ancestors who first settled there in 1865.

The settlers built Welsh chapels and their descendants even organise a regular cultural festival. In 2004, the Welsh speakers in Argentina asked to access Welsh television programmes to encourage the growth of the language.

During the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina 30 years ago, there were Welsh language speakers in both sets of troops.

No one was available to comment from the Argentinian embassy in London on Wednesday. The Foreign Office declined to comment.

Earlier this week at the G20 summit in Mexico, Argentina accused David Cameron of refusing to accept an envelope with UN resolutions on the Falklands issue from Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner.

Ms Kirchner argued her case last week at a UN decolonisation committee, and at the Los Cabos G20 summit in Mexico on Tuesday apparently tried to hand Mr Cameron a folder holding United Nations resolutions, saying the British should negotiate with Buenos Aires.
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