MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei says Argentina will pursue the Falklands diplomatically: “We do not believe in military solutions”

At the same event, Milei defended his alliance with the United States and Israel

Argentine President Javier Milei said in Madrid on Wednesday that he is confident of recovering the Falklands through diplomacy and repeated three times that his government “does not believe in military solutions”, amid an escalating dispute with the United Kingdom over the Sea Lion oil project.

“The Malvinas are Argentine. In fact, Spain had bought them and when we took over the territory they became ours. The original population was Argentine and was expelled by the English,” he said at a breakfast organised by the Nueva Economía Forum. “We will keep negotiating until they return the islands, because we are the legitimate owners,” he added. Milei also said that “the geopolitical and demographic problems” the United Kingdom is facing represent “a risk for the region”, without specifying what he meant.

The United Kingdom maintains that the islands are British and that their inhabitants have the right to decide their own future. In the 2013 referendum, 99.8% of voters chose to retain the status of a British overseas territory.

The remarks come less than three weeks before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea holds hearings in Hamburg on November 10 and 11 on Argentina’s request to halt Sea Lion. London has said it will take part in the proceedings and has approved measures to protect its companies from Argentine sanctions, while the sovereignty bill promoted by Milei, which toughens those sanctions, remains stalled in the Chamber of Deputies.

At the same event, Milei defended his alliance with the United States and Israel while championing trade with China: “The United States trades with China. So why can’t we trade too?”