MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China backs Argentina's Falklands claim and warns about “colonial thinking”

Geng said this way of thinking has a “serious impact” on international relations and order and “seriously damages” the sovereignty, security and development interests of the countries involved.

Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Geng Shuang has backed Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands and called on countries to abandon “colonial thinking”, warning of its serious implications for the international order.

Geng, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the comments on Tuesday to a special committee on decolonization, which adopted a resolution calling on UK and Argentina to resume negotiations over the Islands

“The issue of the Malvinas Islands is a historical legacy of colonialism. Although the colonial era has passed, hegemonism and power politics that are in line with colonial thinking still exist today,” Geng said in an article published in the English language Chinese Communist party daily, South China Morning Post.

Geng said this way of thinking has a “serious impact” on international relations and order and “seriously damages” the sovereignty, security and development interests of the countries involved.

“The international community must remain highly vigilant and resolutely resist this,” he said.

Argentina maintains that the islands - about 600km from its coastline in the South Atlantic were usurped by Britain, which argues that it has territorial claims dating back to 1765.

The centuries-old dispute flared into a two-month war between the two countries in 1982, after a failed attempt by Buenos Aires to take the territory prompted Britain to dispatch a naval taskforce to regain the islands.

The issue was revived in March, when Argentina walked away from a 2016 cooperation agreement - covering issues such as energy, shipping and fishing, but not sovereignty - and demanded a return to negotiations over the Islands.

British foreign secretary James Cleverly said firmly that the Islands are British territory, pointing out on Twitter that the islanders “have chosen to remain a self-governing UK overseas territory, and a member of the British Family”.

A 2013 referendum on the Islands future resulted in a 99.8% vote to remain British.

Argentina's secretary of Malvinas affairs Guillermo Carmona flagged last year that the South American country intended to “take advantage” of the geopolitical climate - including the war in Ukraine - to bolster international support for its claim.

Carmona said the world had “seldom spoken so much about the territorial integrity of countries as it has since Russia invaded Ukraine in February”.

“This has shown up the double standard of some Western powers such as Britain that apply one criteria in Europe and another in South America,” he said.

At the UN committee meeting on Tuesday, Geng said Beijing “firmly supported” Argentina's claim over the disputed territory and advocated for the settlement of disputes through peaceful negotiations.

“We urge the UK ... to avoid measures that may aggravate tension and confrontation, and at the same time actively respond to Argentina's request to resume dialogue and negotiations,” he said.

While Geng's remarks related to the Falkland Islands, they echoed the Chinese foreign ministry's long-standing argument that the US and other Western nations are trying to maintain their own dominance when they push back against China's military presence in the South China Sea.