Argentine President Javier Milei has recently intensified his rhetoric regarding the British-controlled Falkland Islands, at a time when his close relationship with US President Donald Trump and the latter's growing tensions with the United Kingdom have drawn attention to the future of the contested territory.
Trump and Milei have met several times. The Argentine leader is a regular feature at conservative pro-Trump political gatherings in the US. Trump has previously described Milei — a far-right populist leader of the Liberty Advances party — as his “favourite president”.
The Falkland Islands, known as Las Malvinas in Argentina, have long been a source of tension between London and Buenos Aires, though relations have largely been calm in recent days. However, recent reports suggest that the Pentagon has proposed a review of the US historical neutrality over the Falklands dispute — as ties between Washington and London plummet over British criticism of Trump's war on Iran.
The islands are a self-governing British overseas territory in the southwest Atlantic Ocean. An archipelago, its two major islands are East Falkland and West Falkland. The islands are almost 13,000km (8,000 miles) from the UK mainland and have a population of only about 3,200 people. Some one million penguins nest on the islands every summer.
Argentina claims sovereignty over the islands, arguing it inherited them from the Spanish crown in the 19th century. However, in 1690, Englishman John Strong landed in the territory and named it after his patron, Viscount Falkland. Since then, the UK, Argentina, France and Spain have established settlements on the islands. The UK has administered the islands since 1833 and grounds its claim on its long-established presence there and on the clearly pro-British preferences of the islanders themselves. In 2013, Falklanders held a referendum, with 1,513 out of 1,517 voting in favour of remaining British.
In April 1982, the dispute between Argentina and the UK reached a boiling point. Argentina seized the islands in an attempt to take control of the archipelago. In response, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched a military task force to retake the territory, triggering 74 days of fighting. Ironically, Milei has long cited Thatcher — also a conservative politician — as a political role model. The UK ultimately won the war, in which 655 Argentinian and 255 British servicemen were killed.
While Milei's mostly left-wing predecessors routinely reaffirmed Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands, Milei — who has called for strong negotiations with the UK — initially drew criticism from opponents who said he was not taking a firm enough stance on the issue. However, in an interview last week, he claimed that Argentina was “making progress like never before” on the Falklands issue. His comments come at a time when Milei's popularity has crashed domestically. According to the AS/COA approval tracker, 61 percent of Argentinians disapprove of Milei. That is his lowest approval rating since taking office in December 2023.
Experts say that despite the good relationship between Trump and Milei, any resolution of the Falklands dispute still depends on persuading the UK. “Any settlement of this longstanding dispute will surely involve negotiations, and that means persuading the British, not the Americans,” Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America programme at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera. Gedan added that hints of a change to US neutrality in the dispute over the Falklands were clearly designed to needle the British prime minister.
Source: www.aljazeera.com