Argentina’s claim on the Falklands: boosted by Donald Trump, Javier Milei toughens his tone

Argentine President Javier Milei, boosted by the perceived support of Donald Trump, invoked on Thursday September 3 “favorable winds” for Argentina’s historic claim to the Falkland Islands, and announced tougher sanctions for any oil project around the archipelago.

In a televised speech, he announced a bill to “toughen sanctions and penalties against companies linked to unauthorized operations”, around the South Atlantic archipelago, whose sovereignty Buenos Aires and London are disputing.

The announcement comes four days after American President Donald Trump, his ideological ally, said he did not rule out “reviewing” the American position of neutrality regarding the archipelago. It also comes in the wake of a condemnation by the Argentine Chancellery of an oil exploitation project by a British company off the coast of the archipelago.

“The most sacred cause for us Argentinians”

The United States, like most Western countries, recognizes that the United Kingdom de facto administers these islands, but does not comment on sovereignty stricto sensu. This was the subject of a UN resolution in 1965, which recognized the existence of a dispute, and urged the parties to find a peaceful solution. “I always review all the positions. This is one among others,” the American president declared on Monday, when questioned about the Falklands, without being more explicit.

See alsoForty years after the Falklands War, the wounds remain deep

Javier Milei immediately welcomed the little sentence from his American counterpart, evoking “something very strong concerning the most important and most sacred cause for us Argentines”.

The Falklands archipelago, 600 kilometers from Argentina’s Patagonian coast, was the scene of a brief war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982, which left 649 Argentines and 255 British dead in 74 days.

On Tuesday, an association of Falklands veterans and environmental defenders took legal action to prevent an oil project carried out by the British company Rockhopper and the Israeli Navitas in the north of the archipelago.

“Malvinas Argentinas”

The Falklands, administered de facto by the United Kingdom since an “occupation” (according to the Argentine term) in 1833, occupy a central place for the Argentine identity, both totem and cement of the country, crossing political divisions, a bit like the Football Seleccion.

In the Constitution, in the names of municipalities, in school textbooks, on murals, stickers on buses, or even tattooed on the skin, the slogan “Malvinas Argentinas” is omnipresent.

“There is a very broad consensus among the population, but also among political elites, on the legitimacy of the claim to sovereignty,” said Tomas Mugica, political scientist at the Center for International Studies at the Catholic University (UCA), for AFP. “On the other hand, the most appropriate policies to recover this sovereignty are subject to controversy,” he adds.

Conciliation, moderate tone or, on the contrary, chest puffing, have been alternately used by Argentine governments over the years, regardless of their ideological affiliation.

An opportunity for Javier Milei

In the current political context, the Falklands are for Javier Milei, “an opportunity to strengthen ourselves internally, at a time of relative weakness”, believes Tomas Mugica. The leader’s popularity rating has been declining for 3-4 months, against a backdrop of budgetary austerity which is weighing on the majority.

“We will deploy all state instruments, diplomatic, economic, judicial, in order to deter state and non-state actors who undermine our sovereignty,” detailed the Argentine president on Thursday. The Falklands “are Argentine by history and by law, there is no discussion on this subject”, he insisted, adding that the approximately 3,500 inhabitants of the Falklands, “population established on a usurped territory, do not have a legitimate right to self-determination”.

However, a form of caution prevails in the country regarding the potential scope of a change in American posture. “The Falklands issue is used by Trump to put pressure on the United Kingdom to meet his demands on NATO funding, and on collaboration in the war in Iran,” analyzes Tomas Mugica. “Argentina is a piece in a chess game that others are playing,” diagnoses another political scientist, Andres Malamud.

With AFP