The Malvinas government harshly rejected the offer of scholarships for students from the islands to come to study on the continent, which the Argentine government has just launched. They had done the same thing last year when they were offered help to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
“The offer of scholarships from the Argentine Government for islanders to study in Argentina is seen Like nothing but a political stunt since it comes around the anniversary of the war of 1982 – it was fulfilled on April 2 – and before the next meeting in the C24 committee of the United Nations “, began adviser Barry Elsby, after taking some time before the question what he did Clarion this week in the framework of the trip that Foreign Minister Felipe Solá and the Secretary of the Malvinas Area, Daniel Filmus, undertook to the United Nations on Monday.
This Thursday 24, Solá and Filmus will represent Argentina before the United Nations Decolonization Committee, which, as has been the case every year for at least two decades, is debating a resolution in which a majority of members – they call it the C24 – end up supporting the country: the resolution calls to the United Kingdom and Argentina to talk and find a peaceful solution to the national claim for the sovereignty of the Malvinas.
A week ago, Filmus and the Minister of Education, Nicolas Trotta launched the “Thomas Bridges” scholarship program, which is part of the provisions of resolution 2065 (XX) of the United Nations General Assembly and the will of the Government National and national educational institutions. They stated that they were seeking to establish better relations of interrelation with the inhabitants of the Islands. And with it they offered scholarships so that the Islanders enter without hindrance to the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate careersor dictated by the national universities of La Pampa, Río Negro, Comahue, Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Patagonia Austral and Tierra del Fuego.
In the Falklands there was no immediate response. Neither notices in the local press. “You will know that the government of the Falkland Islands fully finances students who wish to attend college, university or complete an outside apprenticeship,” Elsby countered at Clarín’s insistence. “While most students choose to study in the UK, there are no restrictions on where they can go in the world; in fact, the government of the Falkland Islands has financed at least one of our students to study in Córdoba, Argentina ”, he assured.
And he closed the debate by stating that the archipelago’s economy was strong despite the pandemic and instead – he warned – Argentina’s was fighting debt and inflation. “I feel that the only right there is is to have the surplus funds set aside for scholarships for Falkland Islands islanders they would be better used to help Argentine students improve their potential ”, he declared.
It is not the first time that the Falklands have rejected a rapprochement with the continent, and it is not the first time that scholarships or cooperation have been offered. The point is how and when.
In 2015, during the last stage of the previous K government, Filmus – who was also secretary of the area – launched a similar scholarship scheme. It did so after three administrations – that of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner – which maintained a policy of extreme tension with London for the Malvinas and also with the islands.
They cut their charter flights, imposed fines on fishing companies, and oil companies. They banned the Kelper flag on the continent, and in some cases the British flag was banned in ports in southern Argentina. The government won the support of the residents of the time and the former president, now vice president, called the islanders “Okupas” and threatened to cut off their weekly flights from Latam as well.
There were moments of enormous tension. In the middle, the islanders organized a referendum – of only local impact – to show Argentina that almost 99% of its population – such the result – identified as British. In fact they have British citizenship.
Filmus, who admires the time in which the communication agreements with the United Kingdom for the islands governed, from the ’70s and interrupted by the military landing of April 2, 1982, tries a policy of rapprochement, although the official rhetoric became to tense up because the Government put the harsh speech for the Malvinas back on the agenda.
In that sense, Filmus is optimistic. He claims to know that “not all islanders are against it.” Many do not want to go to London to study because then they do not return. In fact, the population of the islands in terms of born there is stagnant, remember. “Relatives who live here as islanders told us that their families took it well”
Solá and Filmus, who also traveled with the Chief of Staff of the Foreign Ministry Guillermo Justo Chaves, met with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres and with the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir.
The Falklands are represented by two councilors: Mark Pollard and Leona Rogers, who is of Chilean origin.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/in-malvinas-they-reject-the-scholarships-offered-by-the-government-let-them-use-them-to-help-argentine-students/
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