"Protected by the Royal Navy of course while they are in Falklands waters."
Given the experiences of Paul and Rachel Chandler, I'm sure that will fill any sailors full of comfort......
Considering UNASUR is formed of the main South American nations and their eventual intention is a supranational organisation along the lines of the EU, this could take interesting turns along the way. Especially as the Chileans are also members. The article says:
"UNASUR's 12 member countries agreed in principle to follow Argentina and deny Falklands-bound shipping any facilities at their ports. Ships leaving the Falklands similarly will be denied docking and fuel, UNASUR announced after the leaders met in Guyana."
Not good for trade for South America, depending on how much they actually do with the Islands. Seems more a case of blockading their ports against FI registered and bound vessels rather than what we would normally consider to be a blockade of the Islands themselves. This is obviously more of a political blockade than a military one, with the intention of ratcheting up the "buggeration factor"... it does not commit them to using or risking any military assets or building up to the point where there could end up being a flash point. Any such real blockade, where you end up with UNASUR naval units sitting outside the FICZ/FIPZ hassling shipping is a different matter; personally, IMHO, theres probably quite a few more rungs on the ladder that they'll have to climb before that becomes a real possibility.
Might be a better idea, depending on how much hassle it is, if the FI vessels depend on trade with UNASUR members to re-register their vessels to a different flag. I concede though that this may not be practical.
Is this going to affect any of the Far East/South East Asian squid/fishing fleets who operate around there? Anybody aware of any ramifications?
Navaleye is right to say that the FCO ought to get off their butts and deal with this diplomatically. Hague has gone missing recently, god knows what he's up to. Malcolm Rifkind appears to be doing the F.O. rounds quite a bit more recently as a coalition spokesman for some reason. Maybe not a bad thing, as for all his rhetoric, Hague isnt exactly the most dynamic and effective F.O. SecState we've ever had. Not the most blundering either, Miliband had that prize sewn up after Mumbai.
It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Personally, post-SDSR, it might pay someone to blow the dust off the reinforcement plan and bring it up to date... just as a precaution.
