Miscellaneous News
- Thread starter bd popeye
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China backs Argentina’s Falklands claim, calls for end to ‘colonial thinking’
- •Beijing envoy warns special committee on decolonisation of ‘serious implications’ for international order of hegemonism and power politics
- •Meeting adopts resolution calling on Britain and Argentina to resume negotiations over sovereignty of the islands
Published: 4:01pm, 21 Jun, 2023 Updated: 5:28pm, 21 Jun, 2023
The Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas, is claimed by Britain and Argentina, which has demanded a return to negotiations over their sovereignty. Photo: Shutterstock
A Chinese ambassador to the United Nations has backed Argentina’s claim to the and called on countries to abandon “colonial thinking”, warning of its serious implications for the international order.
Geng, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the comments on Tuesday to a special committee on decolonisation, which adopted a resolution calling on and Argentina to resume negotiations over the islands, also known as the Malvinas.
“The issue of the Malvinas Islands is a historical legacy of colonialism. Although the colonial era has passed, hegemonism and power politics that are in line with colonial thinking still exist today,” he said.
Geng said this way of thinking has a “serious impact” on international relations and order and “seriously damages” the sovereignty, security and development interests of the countries involved.
“The international community must remain highly vigilant and resolutely resist this,” he said.
Argentina maintains that the islands – about 600km (370 miles) from its coastline in the South Atlantic – were illegally taken by Britain, which argues that it has territorial claims dating back to 1765.
The centuries-old dispute flared into a two-month war between the two countries in 1982, after an attempt by Buenos Aires to take the territory prompted Britain to dispatch a naval taskforce to regain the islands.
The issue was revived in March, when Argentina walked away from a 2016 cooperation agreement – covering issues such as energy, shipping and fishing, but not sovereignty – and demanded a return to negotiations over the islands.
British foreign secretary James Cleverly said firmly that the islands are British territory, pointing out on Twitter that the islanders “have chosen to remain a self-governing UK overseas territory”.
A 2013 referendum on the islands resulted in a 99.8 per cent vote to remain British.
Argentina’s secretary of Malvinas affairs Guillermo Carmona flagged last year that the South American country intended to “take advantage” of the geopolitical climate – including the war in Ukraine – to bolster international support for its claim.
In an interview with Reuters in August, Carmona said the world had “seldom spoken so much about the territorial integrity of countries as it has since Russia invaded Ukraine in February”.
“This has shown up the double standard of some Western powers such as Britain that apply one criteria in Europe and another in South America,” he said.
At the UN committee meeting on Tuesday, Geng said Beijing “firmly supported” Argentina’s claim over the disputed territory and advocated for the settlement of disputes through peaceful negotiations.
“We urge the UK … to avoid measures that may aggravate tension and confrontation, and at the same time actively respond to Argentina’s request to resume dialogue and negotiations,” he said.
While Geng’s remarks related to the Falkland Islands, they echoed the Chinese foreign ministry’s long-standing argument that the US and other Western nations are trying to maintain their own dominance when they push back against China’s military presence in the South China Sea.
The resource-rich waterway is the subject of competing claims by China and a number of countries in the region which have increasingly aired their concerns over Chinese actions and military build-up in the disputed areas.
In February, the ministry published a 4,000-word article condemning US hegemony and listing the ways in which Washington has “abused its dominance” politically, militarily and economically.
UK food costs remain stubbornly high
Prices have been falling for the past three months but consumers are still facing grocery inflation of over 16%Grocery inflation in the UK has started to ease as two separate surveys suggest that food-price growth may have passed its peak, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Food inflation in the country fell for the third consecutive month in June but still remains at 16.5%, down from 17.2% the previous month, according to data from market-research company Kantar.
Inflation stands at its sixth-highest level since the financial crisis in 2008, according to Kantar. Eggs, cooking sauces and frozen potato products saw the biggest price rises.
Another study, conducted by Lloyds Bank, said food-production costs in the UK declined for the first time in May since 2016.
Grocery-price growth reached 19.1% in April, which was the highest rate in more than 45 years, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey earlier warned that the easing of inflation could take longer than expected.
“The ongoing squeeze is clearly weighing on the nation’s mind,” head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, Fraser McKevitt, said. “Of the top five financial worries that consumers have, rising grocery prices is the only one that they are more concerned about now than at the start of this year.”
An index tracking costs for food and drink producers fell for the first time in more than seven years, a Lloyds’ survey showed. However, “it will still take some time before we see the benefit in terms of shelf prices,” according to Annabel Finlay, managing director of food, drink and leisure at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.
“This is, in part, due to the long-term nature of contracts between the manufacturers and retailers, as well as the broader segments of the production chain,” she added.
Earlier, UK officials reportedly met with supermarket bosses to negotiate price cuts, reassuring them that any scheme to help bring down food prices for consumers would be voluntary.
Last week Ken Murphy, CEO of Britain’s biggest supermarket chain Tesco, pointed to some signs of cooling grocery inflation after the company cut prices on bread, pasta and broccoli, but admitted that “it’s unlikely that prices will return to where they were.”
Let me fix your earpiece so you can listen better.
Love how he conveniently ignored the giant text on that giant screen at the back showing the ceremony was moderated by a woman from the German foreign ministry.
Then again, I could also be misgendering.
Meanwhile….
The US wants to use their less capable vessel to search by themselves instead of using both of them. Only problem is the Titan has less then 24 hours of oxygen left.
I was one of the people who was definitely against this meeting when CGTN confirmed it. The reason is that I thought it was going to be like the previous meetings that was all about win-win and “solemnly” urging America to keep their promise. However, given the news about the H-6K bombers and Blinken’s recent shattered glass heart, the meeting didn’t turn out that way. I am definitely glad that I was 100% wrong.I like the title: "Iron Fist of the Sky", has a nice ring to it.
Anyway the most amusing thing in the past 24 hours has been this:
They're all very upset in the states over Blinken's trip and his statements about Taiwan. Yet on the other hand on this side of the Pacific we also have people who are upset over CPC allowing Blinken to come to China in the first place, some in this very thread even. Both groups think the other side won this round.
The guy(scholtz) on the right has no balls...
Does that count as a woman?
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
So there are a few problems with making a deal with the US that isn't immediate A for B in a transaction that is non-reversible in nature such as money for good.
1. Getting an American agreement that they will behave in such a way in the long term is like selling a $2K TV to a hoodrat who writes you a promise on a Burger King napkin signed with hand-drawn gang sign that he'll be back every week to give you $200 until he's paid up.
2. It's China's right not to be annexed and it's also China's right to support whatever nation it sees fit. You don't trade what's yours for something else that's yours; even if the situation is that China has an unresolved problem in Taiwan that temporarily impairs its unity/sovereignty in a de facto manner, it's the principle of the matter.
3. Anything that the US willingly gives you on Taiwan is worthless, because the power is with the giver as he can give and take dependent on his whims. Anything that is meaningful can only be something that you earn by force and no one can take away.
There is no deal worth making with the US. The only way to make progress with America is to grow your power and push them back on all fronts. Ignore their pleas for deals or talks; they're nothing but diplomatic squealing and squirming. They only wish to distract China from what they fear most, which is China digging into its development and getting stronger.
Which is why I said to support Russia in whatever manner China and Russia saw fit to agree on.
I hope so. It's such a mess that I don't follow it anymore. I just want to see big events and results. I firmly believe that Russia's depth and with its historical pattern of fighting wars, that it will emerge victorious. My main concern is if they will be absolute in their follow through and either incorporate all of Ukraine into Russia or find another way to make it so that Ukraine becomes ingrained as a Russian asset and NATO can never rear its ugly head there again.
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