Argentina has renewed its sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands after Washington signalled that it may reconsider its neutrality in the dispute. President Javier Milei said the “winds of change” were favouring Buenos Aires, but British officials insisted that the islanders’ wishes remained decisive.
Sovereignty dispute reignites
Britain and Argentina fought a 10-week war in 1982 over the South Atlantic islands, which are a British Overseas Territory and are known in Argentina as Las Malvinas.
The question of sovereignty remains highly sensitive in Argentina, although the islanders voted overwhelmingly in a 2013 referendum to remain under British rule.
“The Falklands are British because the Falkland Islanders choose to be British,” UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting wrote on social media on Friday.
“Our commitment to the Falklands is absolute and unshakeable,” he added.
The war began in April 1982, when Argentine forces invaded the islands, which had been under British administration since the 19th century. Then prime minister Margaret Thatcher sent a naval task force to retake them.
The conflict killed 649 Argentines, 255 British personnel and three islanders.
Legal challenge targets oil project
Argentine veterans of the Falklands War and environmental lawyers filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to halt an oil project being developed by British company Rockhopper and Israel’s Navitas.
Rockhopper owns a 35% stake in a major offshore oilfield near the Falklands, while Navitas controls the remainder. Rockhopper’s share price fell by around 7% on Friday morning, although both companies insisted that Milei’s statement would not affect the project.
They said they were operating under “valid petroleum licences” and with the “full and continuing support” of the British government.
Milei said the project violated a United Nations resolution calling on both sides to refrain from taking unilateral action concerning the islands.
“If we allow this, we will create an incentive for the British government to deepen its occupation of the islands and the exploitation of our resources,” he said.
He added that companies participating in Falklands projects “behind the back of the Argentine government” would be barred from operating in Argentina.
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the islanders’ right to self-determination was paramount, grounded in international law and something Britain would defend firmly.
Cost of British administration questioned
Former senior Foreign Office official Simon McDonald told BBC Radio 4 that the UK should reconsider the cost of administering a territory located 13,000 kilometres away.
“I think it is long overdue that we have a fresh, fundamental review,” McDonald said, while acknowledging the islands’ “iconic status” in Britain following the country’s victory in the war more than four decades ago.
Thomas Múgica, director of the Centre for International Studies at the Catholic University of Argentina, told AFP that the dispute could also serve US President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Britain over NATO funding and cooperation in the war in Iran.
Milei welcomes possible US shift
Milei presented Washington’s review of its position as a vindication of his foreign policy and his government’s strong support for the Trump administration.
He said the United States was considering changing its position because it recognised Argentina as a reliable partner.
By contrast, Milei claimed that Britain was “on a path of decline” and facing “multiple migration, demographic and economic crises”.
Source: CNA
