Baroness Foster Joins FOTBOT Falklands Visit to Champion Self-Determination and Unity Amid Chagos Dispute”

Friends of the British Overseas Territories to visit the Falkland Islands in February with Parliamentary Adviser, Baroness Foster

CEO Philip Smith of Friends of the British Overseas Territories (FOTBOT) will visit the Falkland Islands with the charity’s committee.

Accompanying the delegation will be the former First Minister of Northern Ireland, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee who is a House of Lords Parliamentary Adviser to FOTBOT.

Whilst in the Falkland Islands the delegation will be touring all the different aspects of life in the Falklands. We will also host our own reception to meet islanders.

In 2022, FOTBOT hosted a campaign to raise funds for the Falkland Island Museum to help build a new hangar for an old harrier from the Falklands War which the delegation will visit.

The visit comes in the midst of the Chagos Islands row where self-determination has been at the heart of the campaign. We hope to rally Falkland Islanders in solidarity with the exiled Chagossians in their right to self-determination.

CEO Philip Smith says: “This visit is an important milestone for Friends of the British Overseas Territories. On one side we are celebrating conservation efforts and understanding life in the Falkland Islands but on the other, we are standing up for self-determination.

“The British Overseas Territories are a family and we must stand together and speak-up when something is not right.

“We are looking forward to meeting officials and Islanders alike to understand critical issues of the Falkland Islands for now and the future, and incorporate our findings into the charity’s work.”

Baroness Foster says: “I’m honoured to visit the Falkland Islands and meet islanders during this special time and understand the critical issues facing the British people there.

“After going through the invasion and subsequent war in 1982 and then being asked about their identity in 1986 and 2013 – the Falkland Islands knows the definition of self-determination and so proudly waves the Union flag.

“This is why we must stand up for Chagossians and I’ll certainly be understanding the view from the Falkland Islands and show solidarity with our wider British family.”