Brasilia: Brazil has defended its decision to allow British military planes flying to the Falklands Islands to stop at its airports, landings that annoyed Argentina.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said that while it backed Argentina’s sovereignty claims over the islands, that support does not affect its “important partnership” with Britain.

Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, last week complained over the increase in flights stopping in Brazil on their way to the Falklands Islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez pose for a photo before their bilateral meeting in Beijing on Sunday.Credit:Xinhua/AP

Scioli said there had been seven Royal Air Force flights in January that had landed at Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre.

“The Brazilian position of authorising the overflight and landing of British military aircraft on the Falklands route is guided by the principle of not contributing to the modernisation and expansion of the United Kingdom’s military resources and war potential in that archipelago,” the Brazilian ministry said.

The British frigate HMS Antelope explodes in San Carlos Bay in the Falklands War in 1982.Credit:AP/File

The note said Brazil authorised the landing and docking of British planes and vessels on their way to the Falklands when the requests involved emergency situations, search and rescue missions, or health and humanitarian reasons.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said the number of overflight and landing authorisations granted to British military aircraft varied from year to year, ranging from 150 some years to just one in others.

The British government dismissed the Argentinian concerns saying they were routine flights and any claims of militarisation were wholly false.

It comes after Britain on Monday firmly rejected a statement from China that affirmed Beijing’s support for Argentina’s claim to the islands.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a tweet that the United Kingdom “completely” rejected “any questions over sovereignty of the Falklands.”

“The Falklands are part of the British family and we will defend their right to self-determination. China must respect the Falklands’ sovereignty,” she wrote.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Argentinian counterpart Alberto Fernandez issued the statement on Sunday saying China “reaffirms its support for Argentina’s demand for the full exercise of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands”. The two leaders met as Fernandez was in Beijing for the Winter Olympics.

Argentina believes the Falklands were illegally taken from it in 1833 and invaded the British colony in 1982. The United Kingdom sent troops and Argentina lost the 74-day war for the South Atlantic archipelago in a conflict that claimed the lives of 649 Argentinian and 255 British soldiers, and three Falklanders.

London says the Falklands are a self-governing entity under its protection.

Relations with China have already been strained on multiple fronts, including Britain’s joining a US-led diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to protest China’s human rights record.

The joint statement also said Argentina “reaffirms its adherence to the one-China principle,” a reference to China’s claim to the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan.

“China and Argentina agree to carry on with close communication and coordination in international affairs, and safeguard the overall interests of the two countries and other developing countries,” the statement said.

Xi and Fernandez also pledged closer economic cooperation and signed a memorandum of understanding on Argentina joining the “Belt and Road Initiative,” Xi’s signature project to build Chinese infrastructure worldwide.

China has overtaken Brazil as Argentina’s main commercial partner, and if talks with Beijing remain on track, Argentina would become the first of the four major Latin American economies to join the initiative.

“Belt and Road Initiative integration won’t be a paradigm shift but rather a continuation of broader trends of growing Argentina-China engagement,” said Pepe Zhang, director and fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Centre.

Reuters, AP

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