Britain has said the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is not up for negotiation, after Argentina’s newly-elected president promised to “get them back”.
Javier Milei, who won a resounding victory in Argentina’s presidential election on Sunday, said Buenos Aires had “non-negotiable” sovereignty over the Falklands, the archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean which is known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina.
Mr Milei said during a TV debate in the run-up to the election that “we have to make every effort to recover the islands through diplomatic channels”.
On Tuesday a spokesperson for prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “The UK has no doubt about the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, and indeed South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
“The UK government will continue to proactively defend the Falkland islanders’ right to self determination.”
Sorry my friend, you’re the second person that’s come to that conclusion from my comment, so I’ve obviously written it like a muppet.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, it wouldn’t work and any form of annexation would be unwise to say the least.
My point is that having an island sat that close to your own borders under the ownership of another country sat on a large prospect of oil would always prove to be a lightning rod for nationalists or rabble-rousers, which is what the Argentine (Argentinian? I’m not sure) government has been seemingly using to deflect from their own failings for years.
It’s not “just off the coast of Argentina” it’s nowhere near Argentina, it’s like Australia claiming they own New Zealand.