How Milei is stirring Falklands claim amid Trump-UK spat

econews. Argentina’s President Javier Milei is capitalising on his country’s long-running claim to the Falkland Islands by coupling threats of sanctions over a major offshore oil project with lavish praise for Donald Trump, after the US president publicly questioned Washington’s position over the disputed UK territory.

Milei’s remarks come as relations between Trump and the UK government have deteriorated over the UK’s refusal to support US military action against Iran, and as the right-wing Milei increasingly positions Argentina as one of Washington’s closest ideological allies in Latin America.

The UK has administered the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, since 1833. However, as the islands lie off its shores, Argentina claims sovereignty over them.

The US has traditionally supported the UK’s claim to the territory. But analysts say Trump’s willingness to question established US policy, even if mainly intended as leverage against London, could provide Milei with an opportunity to unite Argentinians around one of the country’s few enduring national causes.

The question of Argentina’s claim to the islands was raised again this week when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, accused the UK of hypocrisy and wrote on X in Spanish: “The Falkland Islands belong to Argentina.”

Here’s what we know.

What is the dispute over the Falkland Islands?

The Falklands are a self-governing British overseas territory in the South Atlantic, almost 13,000km (8,000 miles) from the UK.

Argentina says it inherited sovereignty over the islands from Spain in the 19th century. But Britain has administered the Falklands since 1833 and points both to that long presence and to the wishes of the islanders living there to justify its control. In a 2013 referendum, 1,513 of 1,517 voters backed remaining a British overseas territory.

The dispute erupted into war in 1982 when Argentina seized the islands.

The UK, under then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, sent a military force to retake the territory, with 74 days of fighting left 649 Argentine and 255 British service members dead.

What has Milei said now?

In a nationally televised speech on Thursday, Milei seized on Trump’s suggestion that Washington might reconsider its position on the islands, and heralded the “winds of change” he said were blowing in favour of Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands.

“The United States is considering this change in position because it knows that Argentina has a reliable partner, aligned with Western values, in a strategically important position that can be a valuable ally in the decades to come,” Milei said.

He also announced measures aimed at obstructing development of the Sea Lion oil project, about 220km (140 miles) north of the islands. The Sea Lion field sits in waters administered by the Falklands, and Argentina considers the project an illegal exploitation of resources in waters it claims as its own.

Rockhopper Exploration, a UK-based oil and gas exploration and production company with interests in the Falkland Islands, and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum are set to begin drilling in the coming months, with oil production expected to begin in 2028.

Milei also threatened tougher sanctions against companies involved in the project and announced new funding for a naval base in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina’s southernmost province, to strengthen the country’s military presence near the islands.

“Argentina will not stand idly by,” he said. “Any further advance on the Malvinas Islands will be considered a violation of our national security.”

“We can argue about my style. We can disagree over fiscal or exchange-rate policy,” Milei added. “But there are causes that rise above any political difference. The Malvinas is one of them.”