Is Argentina's Falklands secretary the ultimate minister without portfolio?

Daniel Filmus is arguably the ultimate minister without porfolio.

As Argentina's newly-appointed "Secretary of State for Falklands Affairs", he is responsible for a territory his country does not own, and which he has not yet visited - and may never do so.

"I've never been there," the 59-year old admits quietly. "But of course, I would like to. As soon as the sovereignty question is resolved."

As far as Britain is concerned, that means Mr Filmus will have a long wait on his hands: the sovereignty question, as David Cameron has repeatedly made clear, is not up for discussion. But that is not stopping Mr Filmus, a former education minister, from having a very good try.

Last week, in what was arguably one of the toughest book promotion tours ever, he flew into London to promote "Malvinas Matters" - a compilation of essays and articles promoting the Argentine claim to the islands. The Argentine embassy in London even threw a special launch party for the book on Monday night, wooing guests with complimentary Argentine wine. And while it may not prove to be the publishing sensation of the year - not in Britain anyway - its backer is confident that sooner or later, the predictions it makes will all come true.

"No colonies last forever," he told The Telegraph last week, in an interview in the embassy's elegant Mayfair building. "Look at the map 200 years ago, 100 years ago, 50 years ago. The world is getting rid of colonies. The world is changing. Really, we know it's going to happen."

Really? That, certainly, is the view of Mr Filmus's boss, President Cristina Kirchner, who has made reclaiming the islands a pillar of her presidency, and who created his post earlier this year in order to give the claim "more political force".

It will, however, take more than free Argentine wine to change the minds of the Falkland Islanders themselves. After all, in a referendum on the islands last year - held precisely in a bid to silence people like Mr Filmus - all but three of 1,516 people who voted were in favour of remaining as a UK overseas territory.

Indeed, to quote the politer views expressed on the streets of Port Stanley, the only reason that Argentina has revived its historic claim to the islands is to distract its populace from its own economic woes. That, and the new possibility that as well as a great many sheep and penguins, the Falklands may have oil reserves that may one day prove commercially viable to exploit.

Given that Mr Filmus clearly thinks such views are deluded, one might wonder why he has never taken to chance to visit the islands to set the record straight. After all, Argentians regularly go there as tourists, and when The Telegraph contacted Roger Edwards, chair of the Falklands Islands legislative assembly, he said Mr Filmus would "be very welcome" to drop by.

"No," said Mr Filmus, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "That's not my job."

Why not? The reason, it seems, is not because he fears that Mr Edwards might be secretly plotting to kidnap him. Instead, he says he is unable to speak to the inhabitants because the United Nations prohibits it – a stance has caused bafflement in London, where the Foreign Office insists that no such protocol exists.

^{Alicia Castro, Argentine ambassador (left) with Daniel Filmus, secretary of state for Falkland Island affairs at the Argentine embassy}

Then again, when it comes to understanding the Argentian mindset on "Las Malvinas", the Secretary of State for Falklands Affairs is not perhaps the best person to turn to. Mild-mannered and quietly-spoken, he comes across as more of a scholar than a rabble rouser; it is hard to imagine him doing well in a head-to-head debate with, say Jeremy Clarkson, who last month irked Buenos Aires by driving around the country in a car with the registration H982 FLK.

Mr Filmus does, however, work alongside two rather feisty ladies: one being Ms Kirchner, and the other being Alicia Castro, the combative Argentine ambassador to London, who sat by Mr Filmus's side during last week's interview.

Quiet, behind-the-scenes diplomacy, it has to be said, is not exactly Ms Castro's weapon of choice. When first appointed to London, she famously took the microphone at a conference at the Foreign Office, launched into a lengthy history of the Falklands, and then asked a visibly-irritated William Hague: "Are we going to give peace a chance?"

Last week, she was again in pugnacious mood, stroking her white poodle, Mandiyu - named after an Argentine football club - while surrounded by framed photos of her heroes, including Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and a Banksy-style image of Chairman Mao. Her study where the pictures sit is a distinctive octagonal shape, which, according to embassy officials, "helps stimulate conversation". But on the subject of the Falklands, the conversation was very much a one-way street.

"The islands are Argentina's," she said bluntly, when the subject of whether the inhabitants would ever accept rule from Buenos Aires comes up. "And you'll see in the epilogue of the book that the day when Argentina exercises its sovereignty over the islands, the residents are going to have a better life.

"There is no doubt. They'll have better communications, better quality of life, better products. They could use the universities – which are public and free. There is no £9,000 per term there."

Ms Castro and Mr Filmus say that Argentina’s claim to the islands is based on historical fact – “extensive historical documentation attesting to the constant presence of authorities and population from Buenos Aires since 1767,” writes one author, Argentine politician Marcelo Vernet, in the book.

But the Falkland Islands government claims they had no indigenous population prior to their settlement by their ancestors– the islands were unoccupied.

Since the islands were first settled in 1764 by French mariner Louis de Bougainville, they have been variously French, Spanish, British and Argentine. In 1833 the British expelled the Argentines, who occupied the islands for 10 years, and have controlled it ever since.

Mr Filmus points out that, in January 1966, the then-foreign secretary, Michael Stewart, went to Buenos Aires and agreed to start discussions over the future of the islands with his Argentine counterpart, Miguel Zavala Ortiz.

Argentina asks why we continued to negotiate with the military junta that ruled from June 1966, but refuse to negotiate now with a democracy. The Foreign Office response is that the Falklands invasion changed all of that.

“We cannot have a dialogue on the Falkland Islands because that implies two parties, and there are clearly three in this debate,” said a Foreign Office spokesman.

“The Islanders can’t just be written out of history. As such, there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless and until the Islanders so wish.”

They say that the UN has never said that Argentina should not talk to the Falkland Islanders, and point out that the UN General Assembly stated in 2008 that self determination is a “universal right” - despite Argentine attempts to get the UN to qualify the right to self-determination in cases where there was a territorial dispute.

Buenos Aires remains resolute, however, with Mr Filmus and Ms Castro claiming that the issue is one of the most important challenges for Argentina today - and one they will overcome. Faced with such unshakeable certainty, one can't help wondering why Mr Filmus even felt it necessary to lend his support to Malvinas Matters. But Ms Castro is only just getting into her flow.

"We need to recover from the wounds of this absurd war. And this has been possible in so many cases. You see Martin McGuinness shaking the hand of the Queen. You see the British prime minister, not offended with Angela Merkel for the World Wars. And you see that reconciliation is not only possible, but also necessary. It's also practical – for people who could have a better life."

By time I get up to leave, I have vague idea of how Mr Hague must have felt when Ms Castro handbagged him at the Foreign Office. Meanwhile, Mr Filmus nods quietly in agreement. With such a formidable mouthpiece at his side, and back in Buenos Aires, the minister without portolio seems more without portfolio than ever.