MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Assembly responds to Argentina's campaign: “This Assembly remains calm”

Ford thanked the British prime minister, the foreign secretary, the minister for the Overseas Territories and figures “right across the UK political spectrum” for their support

The chair of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, Jack Ford, said on Thursday during a sitting of the body that there is “nothing new” in the claims made this week, and that the institution “remains calm” and steadfast in defending the right of the archipelago's residents to determine their own future.

“Claims of this kind have been made against the Falkland Islands many times over many years, and throughout all of them these Islands have continued to grow, to develop, and to thrive. We will go on doing exactly that,” said Ford, who alongside chairing the assembly holds the Corporate Services portfolio and has represented the Camp constituency since last December's general election.

The statement came after a week in which Argentine President Javier Milei called on the UN General Assembly on Wednesday to act over what he described as unilateral British actions, arguing that the principle of self-determination does not apply to the archipelago because, in his government's view, its population was implanted. The United Kingdom responded with a written statement entered into the organisation's official record.

Ford thanked the British prime minister, the foreign secretary, the minister for the Overseas Territories and figures “right across the UK political spectrum” for their support, saying Westminster had shown “unwavering commitment” to the right of self-determination and to developing the archipelago's natural resources. He cited the extension of offshore hydrocarbon production licences announced this month with British backing, calling it “a clear mark of confidence in our future”.

The central nuance of his remarks came next. “Our confidence does not rest on the support of others alone, welcome as it is. It rests on our own democratic choice, made clearly and repeatedly by the people who live here,” he said, citing the 2013 referendum, in which on a 92% turnout 99.8% voted to remain a self-governing British Overseas Territory, a result he described as “independently monitored and beyond dispute”.

Argentina claims sovereignty over the archipelago, does not recognise the validity of licences granted by the local government and maintains that the referendum does not settle the question. It has 60 administrative proceedings open with no penalty applied and three criminal complaints covering ten companies and their directors, and last week sent Congress a sovereignty bill extending prohibitions to all natural resources on the continental shelf. None of the allegations has been proven.

It is the third public intervention by an assembly member in ten days. On September 17, Lewis Clifton, who holds the Emergency Services and Island Security portfolio, said the archipelago's defences are adequate; on September 21, Cheryl Roberts, responsible for Trade, Industry and Mineral Resources, announced the extension of the oil licences.