The President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, led today at the San Martín Palace, together with Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona, the act in commemoration of the National Sovereignty Day, in honor of the battle of the Vuelta de Obligado, which took place on November 20, 1845.

"The Vuelta de Obligado teaches us that winning is not winning, the one who never lowers his arms wins and continues his fight," said the President, adding: "Sovereignty has to do with many things today. You are sovereign if you can feed his people, if you produce vaccines and medicines, if you develop your own culture. Sovereignty today has a multidimensional concept, which goes beyond the defense of our land”.

In that sense, the president said that "when we talk about sovereignty we always end up talking about the Malvinas, because there is our broken territorial sovereignty", and affirmed: "that no one ever steals our love for the Malvinas, that no one ever takes away our right to we have on that land”.

“The challenge ahead is that next year, 40 years after the Malvinas struggle, we fully understand what it means to be sovereign. Let us take the opportunity to understand once and for all what is important to be sovereign as a Homeland”, the president stressed.

For his part, Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero announced, together with the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona, that “from a federal view of the Foreign Ministry, we have decided to open in the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands, a sub-office of the Secretariat of Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic. "

This initiative takes place within the framework of the launch of the Malvinas 40 Years Agenda, created "with the aim of coordinating, designing and planning actions aimed at honoring the fallen and combatants in the war," explained Cafiero. And he added: "it will also carry out a commemoration work, both in the country and abroad, aimed at sensitizing the international community about the Malvinas Question and about the claim of our sovereignty."

The Argentine Foreign Minister also affirmed: “Recovering the full exercise of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich and the Corresponding Maritime and Insular Spaces, has become the highest aspiration of Argentine identity, it is a unanimous sentiment. of the Argentine people and this is reflected as a constitutional mandate”.

The Malvinas 40 Years Agenda will be coordinated by a working group, which will aim to develop a joint dissemination and awareness strategy in relation to Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich and the surrounding maritime spaces and render Tribute to our heroes of the Malvinas, facing 40 years of the South Atlantic conflict that will be fulfilled in 2022. It will be made up of representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, through the Secretariat Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Defense as well as the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

It will work in coordination with the National Council for Matters Relating to the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich and the corresponding Maritime and Insular Spaces, with war veterans, families of the fallen, universities and observatories as well as with the provinces and municipalities.

Foreign Minister Cafiero also highlighted the importance of strengthening the work towards the construction of a bi-continental and oceanic policy for our country and in that line, the delivery of Bicontinental maps was carried out to the Argentine Federation of Municipalities ( FAM), for its distribution in all the municipalities of the country.

Take back a look to the sea

For his part, the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona, accompanied by Frida Armas Pfirter, general coordinator of the National Commission of the Outer Limit of the Argentine Continental Shelf; Verónica Ortuzar, National Director of the Antarctic; and Sandra Pitta, National Director for Malvinas and the South Atlantic Islands, said that the national government from the beginning "has carried out many initiatives that have had to do with creating conditions for our sovereignty at all levels to become effective." He pointed out in that sense: "I highlight the importance of having generated a repositioning in sovereignty issues, through 3 fundamental laws, such as the law that creates the Malvinas National Council, the law that establishes the outer limit to the continental shelf and the regulations that established that the fishing regime should have updated and expanded sanctions, according to the current circumstances”.

Carmona stated: “in our conception of national sovereignty we must strongly incorporate the perspective of a country that is not only one of pampas, plateaus, mountain ranges or forests. We have to strongly recover our gaze from an Argentina that looks towards the sea, a bicontinental, oceanic Argentina”.

He also detailed that “there is no more pretext for freezing the discussion of the sovereignty issue and that is why we are going to work appealing to the tools of diplomacy, international law and the enormous support expressed in our favor and mainly by the countries of the world".

"Malvinas unites us all in a national, regional cause that seeks to end colonialism at a global level," he concluded.

The ministers of Defense, Jorge Taiana; Science, Technology and Innovation, Daniel Filmus, and Interior, Eduardo de Pedro; Productive Development, Matías Kulfas; Public Works, Gabirel Katopodis; Work, Claudio Moroni; the head of the Federal Intelligence Agency, Cristina Caamaño; the presidents of the Senate Foreign Relations Committees, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, and of Deputies, Eduardo Valdés and members of the National Council for Affairs Relating to the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the corresponding maritime areas.

Also present were the vice chancellor, Pablo Tettamanti, the secretary of International Economic Relations, Cecilia Todesca Bocco, the secretaries of Worship, Guillermo Oliveri and of Coordination and Foreign Planning, Pablo Delgado.

Also participating in the meeting were Javier Noguera, President of the FAM and Mayor of Tafí Viejo; as well as members of the National Federation April 2 of the Argentine Republic; of Relatives by identity; of the Veterans Federation of the Province of Buenos Aires; the National Confederation of Malvinas Combatants; the Commission of Relatives of the Fallen in Malvinas and the South Atlantic Islands; the Malvinas Islands Former Combatants Center (CECIM La Plata); Veterans José C paz; from the Center for Civil War Veterans: from the National Interuniversity Council; Malvinas Patriotic Resistance; Group for Sovereignty; Dialogue for Malvinas; of Sons and Veterans of War Santa Fe; for General "R"; of the War Veterans Family Confederation and of the ARA San Juan family members, among others.