Argentine President Javier Milei has escalated the territorial dispute with the United Kingdom over the Malvinas Islands, known by the UK as the Falklands, triggering Britain’s response.
Speaking during the Madrid Forum in Santiago, Chile on Thursday, Milei renewed the long-time dispute, repeating his country’s claim over the islands.
In a nationally aired speech on television, Milei stressed Buenos Aires’ “need to recover” the islands, calling on his nation to “not stand idly by” and “show a united front to the world.” Also, the Argentine president threatened to slap sanctions on oil companies working off the archipelago.
Milei said he would impose economic penalties aimed at stopping the development of the Sea Lion oil project, a major offshore oil development roughly 220 kilometers north of the Islands.
Buenos Aires considers the venture an unlawful exploitation of resources in waters it claims as its own.
His move puts the major offshore oil project, which is co-developed by Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum, under intense geopolitical pressure.
Argentina has blasted Britain’s military exercises in the disputed Malvinas Islands, summoning the UK’s ambassador to Buenos Aires in protest at the drills. https://t.co/zPP6MMp1rb
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) December 10, 2022
On Friday, UK Defense Minister Wes Streeting dismissed Milei’s statement, claiming the Argentine president’s remark “tells us more about domestic politics in Argentina than it does about the Falkland Islands.”
“The Falklands are British because Falkland Islanders choose to be British. Our commitment to the Falklands is absolute and unshakeable,” Streeting later added in a post on social media.
In an interview with GB News earlier this week, US President Donald Trump hinted that Washington would not back Britain in the dispute due to a perceived lack of support for the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran.
Political analysts say Milei’s Thursday speech followed Trump’s interview, seemingly signaling a significant shift in Milei’s earlier policy, which sought to improve diplomatic ties with the UK.
Milei, during his speech on Thursday, claimed he had close ties with Trump, saying the White House is considering reversing its pro-Britain position on the disputed Islands in favor of Argentina because it believes that Buenos Aires “can be a valuable ally in the decades to come.”
The UK has controlled the disputed islands since 1833. The two countries fought a deadly war over the territory in 1982. The islands claimed by Buenos Aires are situated about 500 kilometers east of the southern coast of Argentina.
