The Argentinian-British dispute over the Falkland Islands - The Malvinas, to Argentina - has been rekindled, with the British Foreign Office condemning a South American trading bloc's decision to ban ships carrying the Falklands flag from its ports.
The bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay agreed Tuesday to carry out the act, Uruguay's president said.
The presidents of the Mercosur countries agreed at a summit here that ships flying the Falklands flag "should not dock in Mercosur ports, and if that were to happen, they should not be accepted in another Mercosur port," Uruguay's President Jose Mujica said.
A statement issued at the end of the summit said member countries would adopt "all measures that can be put in place to impede the entry to its ports of ships that fly the illegal flag of the Malvinas Islands."
Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner, who took over the presidency of the trade bloc from Mujica, thanked her fellow presidents for the show of support for Buenos Aires in its dispute with Britain over the South Atlantic archipelago.
The two countries fought a brief but bloody war in 1982 over the islands.
The British Foreign Office said it defended the right of the Falklands' population to self-determination, the Guardian reported.
"It is not immediately clear what practical impact, if any, this statement will have, which mirrors the language already used by the Union of South American Nations in 2010," the Foreign Office said. "We are discussing this urgently with countries in the region. But no one should doubt our determination to protect the Falkland Islanders' right to determine their own political future."
Argentina and Britain have renewed diplomatic ties since the war, but the dispute has heated up again as British companies have begun exploring for oil in waters surrounding the islands, which lie 400 nautical miles from the Argentine coast.
In mid-September, the British company Rockhopper Exploration announced that it hopes to begin oil production in the region in early 2016 and have a maximum output 120,000 barrels per day by 2018.
The decision announced by Mujica would close ports of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil to Falklands flagged ships.
The Uruguayan president last week announced that his country would bar Falklands ships from Uruguayan ports, prompting Britain to call in the Uruguayan ambassador to express its concern.
Mercosur also includes Paraguay, which is landlocked, and counts Ecuador, Peru and Colombia as associates. Venezuela is currently seeking membership in the group.
"I want to thank everyone for their immense solidarity with the Malvinas," Kirchner said in a speech to the summit. "But you should know that when you are signing something on the Malvinas in favor of Argentina you are also doing it in your own defense."
"Malvinas is not an Argentine cause, it is a global cause, because in the Malvinas they are taking our oil and fishing resources," she said. "And when there is need for more resources those who are strong are going to look for them wherever and however they can."
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