The Foreign Office considered the possibility of allowing Argentina a naval base on the Falkland Islands

UK considered allowing Argentina 

Falklands naval base two weeks before war

By Robin Yapp

The Foreign Office considered the possibility of allowing Argentina a naval base on the Falkland Islands just two weeks before the 1982 invasion, newly declassified documents disclose

They show how David Joy, of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, contacted his Chilean counterpart Raul Schmidt to discuss tensions with Argentina before filing a restricted memorandum on March 5 1982.

Chile and Argentina had long been in dispute over the possession of Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands in the Beagle Channel at the southern tip of South America and had come to the brink of war in 1978.

According to the documents, as revealed by BBC World's Spanish language service, Mr Schmidt told Mr Joy that Argentina's sovereignty disputes with Chile and Britain both stemmed from the country's desire to have a naval base further south.

"The Schmidt thesis is based essentially on the Argentine Navy's need of a strategic port further south than its current and most secure port, Puerto Belgrano, (south of the province of Buenos Aires)," one document states.

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