The United Kingdom declared the 40th anniversary of the “liberation” of the Falklands, an archipelago of the South Atlantic controlled by the United Kingdom after an armed confrontation with Argentina that left marks.
“Forty years ago (…) the British forces liberated the Falklands. We fought bravely to defend or direct the people to determine their future and we will always promise our efforts and sacrifices,” he told the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liz Truss, in a video posted on the social network Twitter.
The Royal British Legion planned a commemorative ceremony at the National Memorial Arboretum, a forest in central England created to honor veterans of wars, for former soldiers and relatives of victims.
The ceremony will be broadcast directly on the Internet during the afternoon, together with another in Port Stanley, the capital of Falklands, where “Liberation Day” is a public holiday.
The 74-day confrontation between the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1982 after the invasion of the territory on April 2 resulted in more than 900 deaths, two of which were 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British, and three inhabitants of the islands.
The surrender of the Argentine forces was announced on June 14, 1982, in Parliament by the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who highlighted the need for 30,000 soldiers to liberate the archipelago.
Claimed by Argentina for being 400 kilometers from the coast, the territory has been under British control since 1833, despite being 13,000 kilometers from London.
In 2013, the voters of the archipelago voted unanimously to hold a referendum in favor of remaining under the British crown.
“Today, the Falklands prosper as a member of the British family”, “a model of freedom and democracy as an autonomous overseas territory”, said Liz Truss.
The minister said that the United Kingdom will not hesitate to intervene again to “defend or direct the Falklands to self-determination.”
“We must remain vigilant against threats to freedom, sovereignty, and self-determination,” she continued, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s expansionist ambitions.
Source: with agencies