“The UK did this with Hong Kong, so why not find the agreement so that sooner or later the islands return to Argentina? They’re ours.” That was Argentine President Javier Milei, in an interview with The Economist, laying out what he calls a “consensus solution” for the Falkland Islands.
He pointed to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, under which the United Kingdom eventually handed Hong Kong to China in 1997. Hong Kong residents never got a vote on that deal. The territory kept its own laws and political system for 50 years, a period that ends in 2047, though China has been widely accused of breaking the agreement by suppressing dissent and protest.
Milei insisted that Argentines “do not believe in war” and would not “start yelling like savages” over the archipelago. He once praised Margaret Thatcher as one of “the great leaders in the history of humanity.”
A hard-line speech
The interview was conducted before a televised address on Thursday night and published afterward. Speaking from the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, with his cabinet beside him, Milei said: “The islands are ours, by history and by right, and they were taken from us.”
He announced an emergency decree to build a naval base in Tierra del Fuego, the stretch of Argentine coast nearest the Falklands. He also warned of sanctions to stop companies drilling off the islands. Argentina would use “all the tools of the state: diplomatic, economic, judicial and legal” to impede work at the Sea Lion oilfield, which holds 1.7 billion barrels of oil. He did not mention military action.
Milei said the islanders have no right to self-determination and that Britain is “on a path of decline,” beset by “multiple crises” including social, economic and immigration problems. Argentina, he said, “will prevail.”
He also said Washington is on his side. “President Trump announced that the US is re-evaluating its historic position regarding the Malvinas,” he said, using the Argentine name for the islands. The US has long taken a neutral position. Trump has reportedly hinted he would not back Britain if Argentina invaded again, because Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not support his war with Iran. Milei is a year from an election and badly behind in the polls.
London responds
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting called Britain’s commitment to the Falklands “absolute and unshakeable.” Milei’s statement, he said, “tells us more about domestic politics in Argentina than it does about the Falkland Islands. The Falklands are British because Falkland Islanders choose to be British.”
Senior minister Lucy Powell said Milei was “simply posturing” ahead of his country’s elections. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch blamed the Government’s plan to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius for encouraging such threats. “Britain does not surrender to bullies,” she said.
Not everyone in the British establishment dismissed the idea of talks. Lord McDonald, a former head of the Foreign Office, told the BBC that Labour should review its Falklands policy and open diplomatic talks with Argentina, citing the cost of defending the islands and their distance from the UK.
The timing was awkward for the government. It emerged Thursday night that the Army is cancelling training exercises to save £30 million, as Labour refuses to raise defence spending.
