Fishing zone meeting urged

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 9

Fishing zone meeting urged

NZPA-ReuterPunta Del Este Brazil and Uruguay have backed Argentina’s call for a special Ministerial session to discuss Britain’s new fishing zone around the disputed Falkland Islands. “The Governments of Brazil and Uruguay will support the call by Argentina for a special session of Foreign Ministers of the O.A.S. (Organisation of American States),” said a joint statement issued in Punta Del Este yesterday. The decisions were made at a meeting of Argentine Foreign Minister, Dante Caputo; Brazilian Foreign Minister, Roberto de Abreu Sodre; and Uruguayan Foreign Minister, Enrique Iglesias, at the Uruguayan beach resort. The. special session would be held at the annual meeting of the O.A.S. in Guatemala next week. The joint statement said the three Governments were convinced that “bilateral diplomatic negotiations are the appropriate mechanism for reaching a peaceful solution to this dispute.” The meeting came four days after the British Government declared a 200mile (320 km fishing zone and a 150-mile (240 km conservation zone around the Falklands, which were the cause of a 10-week war between Argentina and Britain in 1982.

The Argentine President, Raul Alfonsin, has rejected the zone as an aggression that threatened peace in the region;