UK reasserts Falkland Islands are British as Argentina seeks new talks

Argentina’s foreign minister said he informed Britain’s foreign secretary about his country’s decision to pull out of a cooperation agreement last week

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly said: ‘Islanders have the right to decide their own future – they have chosen to remain a self-governing UK Overseas Territory’

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Gypsy Cove, near Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:07am, 6 Mar 2023

Britain has reasserted its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands after Argentina pulled out of a cooperation agreement and demanded new talks over the South Atlantic territory that sparked a 1982 war between the two countries.

The pronouncement came after Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero said on Twitter that he informed British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly about his country’s decision when the pair met on the margins of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in India last week.

“The Falkland Islands are British,” Cleverly tweeted late on Friday. “Islanders have the right to decide their own future – they have chosen to remain a self-governing UK Overseas Territory.’’

Earlier, Cafiero said he told Cleverly that Argentina had decided to pull out of a 2016 agreement in which the two countries pledged to work together on a variety of issues. While that agreement sought to improve cooperation in the South Atlantic, both sides continued to assert their claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina.

Cafiero also said he proposed new talks in line with a 1965 UN General Assembly resolution that encouraged Britain and Argentina to find a peaceful solution to the dispute over the islands.

Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the islands, which are about 300 miles (480km) from South America and home to some 3,500 people.