Leave it to Barack Obama.
POTUS did it again. He upset American ally Great Britain during his trip to Colombia, South America.
“British troops dying next to Americans in Afghanistan: what thanks does Britain get? ‘Neutrality’ on the Falklands”
Nile Gardiner at The Telegraph reported:
Barack Obama may have rolled out the red carpet for David Cameron at the White House last month, flown the Prime Minister on Air Force One to Ohio, and lavished him with a state dinner, but he still won’t back America’s closest ally over the Falklands, sticking to a policy of “neutrality”. As Bloomberg reported on Sunday from Colombia:
President Barack Obama said the U.S. will remain on the sidelines in the dispute between the U.K. and Argentina over the Falkland Islands.
“We’re going to remain neutral,” Obama said at a news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as the Summit of the Americas concluded in Cartagena. “This is not something that we typically intervene in.”
Downing Street will probably point to Washington’s refusal to sign up to a Summit of the Americas declaration this weekend as a sign that the Obama administration is shifting its position on the Falklands. Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner had pushed hard for the Summit to categorically back Buenos Aires’s claim to the Islands, and reportedly left early in a huff after failing to get her way. But Washington’s hesitancy to sign on to a Summit statement was overwhelmingly due its opposition (together with Canada’s) to Cuba being invited to join next year’s summit, which would have been at the heart of a joint declaration, and had little to do with the Falklands matter. In an election year, the Obama administration simply cannot afford to be seen to be soft on Cuba, which it has largely been since it took office.
In reality, the Obama presidency’s position on the Falklands remains unchanged. The President and his Secretary of State refuse to back the right of self-determination of the Falkland Islanders, and have not said a word condemning the increasingly belligerent stance and actions of Buenos Aires, including its threats to blockade the Islands and isolate it economically.
Hat Tip Darren
