UK Rules Out Fresh Demand for Falkland Island by Argentina
The sovereignty of the Falkland Islands will not be up for discussion as long as they want to remain a British territory.
The foreign secretary, Lord Cameron said is preparing to visit the island, ahead of a summit of the foreign ministers of the G20 countries, which include Argentina and the UK.
Speaking ahead of the trip, he said: that the Falkland Islands are a valued part of the British family and that as long as they want to remain part of the family, the issue of sovereignty will not be up for discussion with Argentina.
The islands, 8,000 miles from the UK and 300 miles off the coast of Argentina, were the subject of war in 1982 claiming the lives of 255 British servicemen, three islanders, and 649 Argentinian personnel.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron plans to visit the Falkland Islands soon in a show of British sovereignty over the archipelago after newly-elected Argentine President Javier Milei pledged to get them back.
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Cameron could visit the Falklands as soon as next week, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity discussing travel plans that aren’t finalized.
He’ll be in the region for a Group of Twenty foreign ministers meeting in Rio de Janeiro that starts on Wednesday. The Foreign Office declined to comment.
The UK 2023 dismissed a suggestion from Milei that Argentina could gain sovereignty over the islands in the South Atlantic Ocean through diplomatic channels.
Argentina’s claim to what it calls the Islas Malvinas has been upheld by successive governments since the country gained independence in the 1800s.
People living on the archipelago overwhelmingly prefer to remain British, with 99.8% of the islanders having voted for it to remain a British territory in a referendum held in 2013.
In 1982, Argentine forces invaded the Falklands, triggering a 10-week war with the UK which cost the lives of 649 Argentine troops, 255 British military personnel, and three islanders.
During his election campaign, Milei called for Argentina to recover the Falklands via a negotiated treaty.
There is no question of the sovereignty of the islands, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman Max Blain said when Milei was elected in 2023.
