Argentina's president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said the country would file a complaint with the United Nations about Britain's "militarization" of the South Atlantic.
This is all part of a recent escalation of the two countries' long-running dispute about the Falkland Islands. Reuters reports:
"Britain, which rejected the accusation, went to war with Argentina over the British-ruled Falkland Islands in 1982. London has refused to start talks on sovereignty with Argentina unless the roughly 3,000 islanders want them.
"'They're militarizing the South Atlantic once again,' President Cristina Fernandez said in a speech on Tuesday at the presidential palace, criticising the deployment of British destroyer HMS Dauntless in the area in the coming months.
"'If there's one thing we're going to preserve, besides our natural resources, is a region where peace prevails,' she said, adding that the Foreign Ministry would present a formal complaint to the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly."
As we've reported, with the 30th Anniversary of the war approaches, Argentina has seen a few protests. And the fact that Britain deployed Prince William to the area has only heightened tensions. Kirchner characterized his visit as the arrival of a conquistador, while Prime Minister David Cameron said Argentina had a "colonialist" aim with its blockade of the islands.
The Telegraphreports that England also rejected any further negotiations on the islands.
"We are not militarizing the South Atlantic. Our defensive posture in the Falkland Islands remains unchanged," The Telegraphquotes a Downing Street spokesman as saying. "The people of the Falklands choose to be British. Their right to self determination is a principle that's enshrined in the UN charter."
The Christian Science Monitorreports Kirchner said England's movements can only be called militarization.
"There is no other way to interpret the decision to send a destroyer, a huge and modern destroyer, to accompany the royal heir, whom we would have loved to see in civilian clothing instead of a military uniform," Kirchner said.
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