Argentine President Javier Milei has threatened to settle a dispute with the United Kingdom over an oil project near the Falkland Islands through international arbitration. The islands are administered by Britain, but Buenos Aires claims sovereignty over them.
In 1982 Britain and Argentina fought a short but bloody 10-week war over the South Atlantic islands, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas. The war killed 255 British troops and 649 Argentines.
Israeli firm Navitas and British company Rockhopper are developing a large oil field off the Falklands. Rejecting Argentina’s threat, the two companies said Britain had granted them valid exploration licences.
“I have instructed the foreign ministry and our team of lawyers to begin legal proceedings or arbitration against the United Kingdom over the illegal plundering of our resources in the North Falkland Basin through the Sea Lion project,” Milei said in a post on X on Monday.
The Sea Lion field lies about 220 kilometres (137 miles) from the Falkland Islands. “If within two weeks the United Kingdom does not halt this illegally conducted extraction of resources, we will go to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea,” Milei said.
Milei’s government has already taken legal action against the British-approved project, arguing that it violates a UN resolution calling on both sides to refrain from unilateral steps on the islands until the dispute is resolved.
Buenos Aires has taken a harder line on its claim to the Falklands since US President Donald Trump recently spoke of possibly reconsidering Washington’s long-standing neutrality on the issue.
The British government, for its part, has said it stands by the businesses operating near the Falklands, saying they have “the right to develop and use their natural resources as they choose”.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report