Argentina has notified the United Kingdom of its unilateral termination of a 2016 pact regarding the disputed Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, a move British officials described as "disappointing."

Meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Summit in New Delhi, Argentina's FM Santiago Cafiero formally notified his British counterpart James Cleverly that Argentina was terminating the September 2016 joint communique known as the ‘Foradori-Duncan’ pact. 

Taking to Twitter, Cafiero also said that Argentina’s government had proposed “resuming negotiations on the sovereignty issue” and called for a meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The minister said he proposed "an agenda of issues that, as a minimum, should be part of the negotiation process that we are promoting” and said his government is “complying with the mandate of the General Assembly and the United Nations Decolonisation Committee," he said.

Responding to the developments, the UK expressed its disappointment and rejected the invitation to resume negotiations on the sovereignty of the islands.

"The Falkland Islands are British," Cleverly responded on Twitter quoting Cafiero's thread, adding that, "Islanders have the right to decide their own future – they have chosen to remain a self-governing UK Overseas Territory." 

The decision was announced just as Britain's minister for the Americas, David Rutley, was visiting Buenos Aires for what he called "productive" meetings.

"Argentina has chosen to step away from an agreement that has brought comfort to the families of those who died in the 1982 conflict," Rutley tweeted, calling the decision "disappointing".

Signed back in 2016, the pact was testimony wherein both sides agreed to cooperate on issues such as energy, shipping and fishing, and on identifying the remains of unknown Argentine soldiers who died in the 1982 South Atlantic War.

Argentina’s current government, however, believes the agreement is “detrimental" to Argentina's historic sovereignty claim over the islands. 

According to a statement by the Argentine Foreign Ministry, the note delivered by Cafiero to Cleverly stated that "Argentina has sought to collaborate on concrete matters such as flights, scientific activity in Antarctica or conservation and preservation of fishing resources, 'without the willingness shown by Argentina having been reciprocated by your government'." 

"The United Kingdom has continuously carried out unilateral acts, which have been timely and duly protested by the Argentine Republic. Throughout this time, the British government has systematically refused to resume the sovereignty negotiations repeatedly urged by the United Nations," the official note said.

A 1965 United Nations resolution mandated Argentina and the UK to enter into direct negotiations over the sovereignty of the islands, which has been disputed since 1833, but London has refused to open talks. 
 

Image courtesy: Marcos Brindicci/Reuters