Key facts
- Argentina will stop the Falkland Islands from exploiting offshore oilfields.
- The move is part of a strategy to assert Argentinian sovereignty.
- Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno made the announcement at a thinktank event.
- President Javier Milei has a peaceful strategy for sovereignty assertion.
- Argentina views the UK's facilitation of oil projects as unilateral action.
- Third parties assisting in resource exploitation were warned by Quirno.
Argentina's government will prevent the Falkland Islands from exploiting its offshore oilfields as part of a strategy to assert sovereignty, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno announced. During a speech at the Argentine Council for International Relations thinktank, Quirno condemned the British government for refusing to negotiate the sovereignty dispute and for facilitating unilateral measures concerning natural resource exploitation in disputed maritime areas.
Quirno stated that preventing the consolidation of British occupation through resource exploitation is part of a strategy to peacefully recover full Argentinian sovereignty. He warned third parties against assisting the Falkland Islanders in these activities, stating that those who contribute indirectly or directly to illegitimate exploration or exploitation of resources would not share in Argentina's growth benefits.
Last month, Argentinian President Javier Milei told the UN General Assembly that the Sea Lion project, an oil development in the North Falkland Basin, was an 'unlawful act'. Argentina has accused the UK of violating a 1976 UN resolution that called for both parties to desist from unilateral actions regarding the islands. Milei had previously given the UK a two-week deadline to cease the oil project or face arbitration at the international tribunal for the law of the sea.
The UK government maintains that the Falkland Islands, known as Las Malvinas in Argentina, will remain a British overseas territory as long as its approximately 3,600 residents wish. A 2013 referendum saw 99.8% of voters choose to remain a British territory. The UK government has stated that the islands are self-governing and that its position on sovereignty is based on the wishes of the islanders.