{"id":1117,"date":"2016-02-19T12:35:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T12:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2016-02-19T12:35:17","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T12:35:17","slug":"michael-visits-the-falkland-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=1117","title":{"rendered":"Michael Visits the Falkland Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1120\" style=\"width: 1632px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1120 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_5776.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_5776\" width=\"1632\" height=\"1224\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_5776.jpg 1632w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_5776-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_5776-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_5776-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_5776-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael speaking to military personnel on the Falklands. Crown Copyright.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Michael has visited the Falkland Islands this week in the first\u00a0visit by a UK Defence Secretary in more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>He spent time with islanders and MOD personnel in the capital Stanley and other sites, witnessing\u00a0some of the construction work which is taking place as part of a \u00a3180m, 10-year commitment to modernise the defensive infrastructure of the islands. \u00a0The \u00a3180m upgrade package includes \u00a360m to improve the power station at Mount Pleasant Camp, \u00a322m to improve facilities at the berths in Mare Harbour, and \u00a320m of work on accommodation at Radar Heads.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1118\" style=\"width: 364px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1118\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/FullSizeRender.jpg\" alt=\"FullSizeRender\" width=\"364\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/FullSizeRender.jpg 906w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/FullSizeRender-198x300.jpg 198w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/FullSizeRender-768x1161.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/FullSizeRender-677x1024.jpg 677w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 364px) 85vw, 364px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael paying his respects to those who fell in the 1982 conflict. Crown Copyright.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As well as meeting current military personnel he also visited key locations from the 1982 conflict, including at Goose Green and San Carlos, and paid his respects to those who died on both the British and Argentinian sides.<\/p>\n<p>Michael\u00a0said: &#8220;This was an important opportunity to hear about life on the islands and the potential for economic development that will bring more jobs and prosperity.\u00a0 The right of the islanders to determine their own future was settled over 30 years ago and confirmed by the recent referendum.<\/p>\n<p>Now we want to build a better relationship with the new Argentinian government, as neighbours in the South Atlantic and fellow G20 members.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael has visited the Falkland Islands this week in the first\u00a0visit by a UK Defence Secretary in more than a decade. He spent time with islanders and MOD personnel in the capital Stanley and other sites, witnessing\u00a0some of the construction work which is taking place as part of a \u00a3180m, 10-year commitment to modernise the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=1117\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Michael Visits the Falkland Islands&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[54,462,435],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}