Argentina accuses Britain of hypocrisy over Falklands

The Prime Minister had said he wanted to send a “strong message” about the islands, which the Argentines refer to as the Malvinas.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, Mr Cameron vowed to protect the islands’ population and allow them to decide their own future.

“What the Argentinians have been saying recently, I would argue, is far more like colonialism because these people want to remain British and the Argentinians want them to do something else,” he said.

But last night, Argentina’s interior minister, Florencio Randazzo, said: “It is absolutely offensive, especially in the case of Great Britain. History clearly shows what its attitude to the world was.”

The spat is the latest escalation in the dispute between the UK and Argentina over the islands – the latter continues to claim sovereignty of the Falklands, 290 miles east of its coast – ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War in April.

Mr Cameron told MPs that he had convened a meeting the National Security Council to discuss the Falklands to ensure “our defences and everything else are in order”.

He added: “It’s very important that we commemorate the Falklands War in this year, the 30th anniversary, and we remember all those who served and who fought so hard and those who gave their lives and didn’t come home.

“The absolutely vital point is that we are clear that the future of the Falkland Islands is a matter for the people themselves.

“As long as they want to remain part of the United Kingdom and be British, they should be able to do so.”

Mr Cameron repeated his message later yesterday in 10 Downing Street, at a press conference following talks with Italian MP Mario Monti.

“It is important for Britain to send a clear message that as long as people in the Falklands want to remain British, we respect that right of self-determination,” he said.

“The reason for holding a National Security Council – which discussed other things as well – is to discuss that issue, to make sure nobody is in any doubt that Britain supports that right of self-determination, and we will go on doing so for as long as people in the Falklands want to continue in that way.

“I think it is important that everyone understands that.”

Last month, Argentina persuaded Brazil, Uruguay and Chile to join a Mercosur trade group resolution to turn away any ship flying the Falklands’ flag – a sheep and a ship along with the Union Jack.

In June last year, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez described Britain a “crass colonial power in decline” for refusing to hold talks over the Falklands, stating that Britain’s argument of self-determination for the islands was a display of “mediocrity bordering on stupidity”.

The United Kingdom has controlled the islands, about 300 miles off the Argentine coast, since 1833.

The two-month conflict with Argentina in 1982 resulted in the deaths of 255 British military personnel and about 650 Argentines.

The UK government says it will only agree to sovereignty talks if the territory’s 3,000 residents ask it to, and that the islanders want to remain British.

Tensions have risen in recent years over offshore oil exploration, and have gained steam ahead of the April anniversary of the conflict – as well as the planned tour of duty on the islands by the Duke of Cambridge, an RAF helicopter pilot, later this year.