The UK’s relationship with Argentina could once again come under threat as the new president-elect has vowed to take back the Falklands.
The Falkland Islands – known in Argentina as Islas Malvinas – is a British overseas territory based in the South Atlantic, and has been under British rule since the 19th Century.
France, Spain, and the US all claimed the Falklands for themselves at one point in history. Argentina seized it in 1832, only for the UK take it a year later.
And so Buenos Aires has contested the sovereignty of the archipelago, which is just 300 miles from Argentina and 8,000 miles from the UK, for years.
Its armed troops even stormed the islands in 1982, triggering the 10-week Falklands War – which Britain won.
Three islanders, 255 British troops and 649 Argentinians died in the conflict.
Now, after far-right leader Javier Milei won Argentina’s presidential elections on Sunday, it is looking like the row over the land is about to resurface.
What has the new president-elect said?
Milei, who has been compared to former US president Donald Trump and nicknamed ‘El Loco’, has claimed Argentina has a “non-negotiable” sovereignty over the archipelago.
In a TV debate held shortly before the election, he said: “We have to make every effort to recover the islands through diplomatic channels.”
What has the UK said?
Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said on Tuesday: “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.”
Also on Tuesday, the defence secretary Grant Shapps wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “The Falkland Islands are British. That is non-negotiable and undeniable.
“99.8% of islanders voted to remain British and we will always defend their right to self-determination and the UK’s sovereignty with @HMS_Forth now back to protect the islands.”
The defence secretary is referring to the 2013 referendum when the UK asked the 2,900 occupants of the Falklands if they wanted to remain under British rule – 99.8% of the 92% turnout said yes.
The UK has been particularly robust in its defence of the Falklands since.
Sunak even condemned the EU’s “regrettable choice of words” when in July the bloc used the Argentine name for the archipelago, Islas Malvinas, in a declaration signed with Latin American countries about the Falklands sovereignty.
Does this mean another war looms?
Although Milei has expressed his admiration for Margaret Thatcher – she was the PM during the Falklands War and was able to rescue her political reputation through victory in the archipelago – it doesn’t look like the president-elect wants to go to war himself.
Milei has also noted the opinions of those on the islands “cannot be ignored” either, presumably a reference to the 2013 referendum.
In the same TV debate, Milei reportedly said: “The Malvinas are Argentine.
“Now we have to see how we are going to get them back. It is clear that the war option is not a solution.
“We had a war – that we lost – and now we have to make every effort to recover the islands through diplomatic channels.”
He also told the Argentine daily newspaper La Nacion that the UK could just return the Falklands to Argentina, just as it returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.
But, Argentina did step back from a 2016 UK-Argentina cooperation agreement earlier this year, and said it was time for new talks on the islands’ sovereignty.
The Royal Navy ship HMS Forth is also now on patrol near the islands, after a nine-month shift from the HMS Medway.