§ Your Excellency,
§ I have the honour to refer to the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations Number 2065 (XX) of the 16th of December 1965 and the letters dated the 21st of November 1969 and the 11th of December 1970 from the Permanent Representatives to the United Nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Argentine Republic addressed to the Secretary-General of the Organisation on the question of the Falkland Islands, and also to the Joint Statement on communications and movement between the Argentine mainland and the Falkland Islands initialled in Buenos Aires by the representatives of the two Governments on the 1st of July 1971, and to inform Your Excellency that the Government of the United Kingdom are prepared to conclude an agreement with the Government of the Argentine Republic in the following terms:
- 1. (a) Since divergence remains between the two Governments regarding the circumstances that should exist for a definite solution to the dispute concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, nothing contained in the Joint Statement referred to above and approved by our two Governments on today's date shall be interpreted as:
- (i) a renunciation by either Government of any right of territorial sovereignty over the Falkland Islands or
- (ii) a recognition of or support for the other Government's position with regard to territorial sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
- (b) no acts or activities taking place as a consequence of the Joint Statement referred to above having been put into operation and while it is in operation shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting, or denying the position of either Government with
17 regard to territorial sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
§ 2. Either Government may denounce this agreement subject to six months' prior notice in writing.
§ If the foregoing is acceptable to the Government of the Argentine Republic, I have the honour to propose that this Note together with Your Excellency's reply in that sense shall constitute an agreement between the two Governments which shall enter into force on the date of your reply.
§ I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.