Prince William is now on the eve of his six-week tour of duty in the Falklands, a tour that the Royal Air Force says is entirely routine. Argentina sees things quite differently. The country lays claim to “Islas Malvinas”, which lie some 290 miles from its coast (as opposed to the 20 hours by RAF aircraft from RAF Brize Norton).
2012 marks the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War, when Argentina invaded the Falklands. Ever since the announcement of Prince William's posting, just after the Royal Wedding, the South American country has been protesting. According to reports in the January 28th issue of “The Telegraph,” the Falklands are ready, unfazed and waiting for the visit of their future king, even though Prince William will be heading there not as a representative of the Queen, but as a search and rescue trainee. (Story continues below.)
Argentina has meanwhile stepped up its complaints; on January 20, protestors burned Union Jacks in front of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires. The British Government has reiterated its stance that the Islands are safe from Argentina and that it's up to the residents to decide whether they want to be British or not.
Brigadier Bill Aldridge, commander of the British garrison in the Falkland Islands, says that he has “the capability to defend the islands," including a number of helicopters and planes that do daily fly-bys to point out that Britain is ready and waiting, should Argentina get any feistier. Port Stanley's garrison hosts some 1,400 service personnel and 600 civilians. (The Falklands are home to about three thousand people overall.)
It's not just Prince William's presence that is stirring up tensions, which in the past weeks have included a blockade of British-owned fishing boats in what Argentina calls the waters of the Islas Malvinas, i.e. not-British waters. It's also that, since 1982, a rich deposit of oil has been found near the Falklands. Exploratory oil rig Leif Eriksson is now in place and is looking for black gold.
According to “The Daily Mail,” starting in 2016, it should be possible to extract about £20 billion of oil, some 350 million barrels, from the first oil field, with the possibility of more. The Falklands are about to hit the big time: The islands will levy a 9 percent tax on the oil, along with 26 percent corporation tax on oil company profits. In this context, it's clear why Argentina is sitting up and paying attention to a place that had previously relied on fishing and sheep farming.
Argentina is currently blocking vessels with Falklands flags from entering Argentinian ports, and has reportedly persuaded Brazil and Uruguay to do likewise. This is particularly interesting in the light of Prince Harry's upcoming visit to Brazil, part of a British initiative to embrace South America as a trading partner and use the British Royals as trade ambassadors.
Argentina's president is currently threatening to stop a weekly Chilean supply shuttle from flying over Argentinian air space, though "The Telegraph" on 22 January pointed out that this airplane can easily detour to avoid such space, flags flying the British ensign can still get into “banned” ports, and the periodic RAF supply flight could easily carry more supplies.
In the meantime, the Falklands Islands are also gearing up for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and plans to light beacons to mark the momentous occasion. Prince William will not be on the islands during that celebration, and he'll be gone from the Falklands before the official 30th anniversary of the invasion, on April 2, 1982. But that isn't stopping the Argentine government from having its say, and the next few weeks may be more interesting than usual for Prince William.
See pictures of the Falklands Islands here.
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Sources: The Telegraph; and again; Daily Mail; and again (flag-burning); The Mirror; Telegraph World News; Lonely Planet Falklands Islands
Get British Royal Family news by subscribing to this column or using the RSS feed. Linda Gentile is the British Royal Family Examiner and you can also follow on Twitter and Facebook. And, for yet more British life and culture, check out Linda's British Life column.
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