Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 200: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will support Argentina on the Malvinas oil dispute at the United Nations. [10645/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The issue to which the Deputy refers concerns a long-term dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom regarding the question of sovereignty over the territories of the Falkland (Malvinas), South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, to which both countries lay claim.

Since 1965, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted ten Resolutions on the question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). The most recent Resolution was adopted in 1988, in which the General Assembly requested the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom to initiate negotiations with a view to finding the means to resolve peacefully and definitively the problems between both countries, including all aspects of the future of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

The question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) also has been the subject of successive Resolutions adopted by the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, most recently on 19 June 2009. In this Resolution, the Special Committee on Decolonization called for a peaceful negotiated settlement of the sovereignty dispute and expressed regret that implementation of Resolutions adopted by the Committee in the past had not started in spite of widespread international support for negotiations between the two Governments. In addition, the Committee requested that the two Governments consolidate the current process of dialogue and cooperation through the resumption of negotiations in order to find a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute as soon as possible.

Ireland is fully supportive of the Resolutions adopted under the aegis of the United Nations. I would encourage both countries to resume their negotiations in the interest of pursuing a peaceful solution to this dispute, as provided for in the relevant Resolutions.