Argentina’s president demanded UN help to seize the Falklands today, hours after Donald Trump declined to endorse UK sovereignty of the islands.
Hard-Right leader Javier Milei said ownership of the archipelago was a ‘national cause’ for his country and demanded talks with Andy Burnham in a speech to the UN General Assembly.
In a rambling address in New York, he lambasted the ‘useless’ organisation for not helping his country with its illegitimate claim over the ‘Malvinas’ and vowed to continue to take action against oil companies acting in the waters around them.
Argentina this month began sanctions proceedings against more than 60 firms linked to an offshore oil drilling project, a move the UK said was ‘unacceptable.’
‘For us the Falklands are a national cause. They are also a test of the gulf that can exist between the words of international institutions and the reality in which they purport to act,’ Mr Milei said.
It came the day after Mr Trump, a close ally of the struggling Argentine leader, declined to back Mr Burnham‘s plea for support in the row.
The President sat silently as the Prime Minister revealed they discussed the latest claim on the South Atlantic archipelago at a meeting in New York.
Hard-Right leader Javier Milei said ownership of the archipelago was a ‘national cause’ for his country in a speech to the UN general assembly
The President sat silently as the Prime Minister revealed they discussed the latest claim on the South Atlantic archipelago at a meeting in New York.
Milei has escalated tensions over the UK overseas territory in recent weeks. He used a nationally televised address to reiterate his country’s claim to the Falklands, saying the islands ‘are our future’.
But Argentina’s opposition has accused the president, who is expected to seek reelection in 2027, of using the dispute to bolster domestic support.
‘It’s simply something to look good in the eyes of society or to try to shift the agenda,’ said Guillermo Michel, a Peronist opposition congressman in the chamber of deputies.
Speaking alongside Mr Trump in New York, Mr Burnham said the President had been ‘good enough to listen to us’ about the islanders’ right to self determination, 44 years after the war.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump questioned the UK’s ability to defend the British Overseas Territory due to its domestic problems with immigration and energy.
Mr Burnham said the UK ‘will stand firm in the face of any threats’ to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.
Mr Burnham said: ‘I didn’t react immediately when the Argentinian president made his recent comments, but in this forum, I think it’s right for me to set out the position clearly, and the clear position is: we will stand firm in the face of any threats.
‘We will defend the right of the Falkland Islanders to self-determination and to remain British.
‘And I just wanted the president to know directly from me, that’s the clear British position, and he very much understood what I was saying.’
He told broadcasters in New York that Mr Trump ‘understood why we’ve taken that view’.
Mr Milei will address world leaders at the UN General Assembly later today, and is likely to hit back.
In his televised address earlier this month, Mr Milei seized on suggestions that Mr Trump could reconsider Washington’s neutral stance on the sovereignty of the islands.
‘The United States is considering this change in position because it knows that Argentina has a reliable partner, aligned with western values, in a strategically important position that can be a valuable ally in the decades to come,’ Mr Milei said.
Although the US is formally neutral, Washington provided support for Britain’s campaign to retake the islands after the Argentinian invasion in 1982.
It sparked the Falklands war, which led to the deaths of 255 British servicemen in just over 70 days. It also led to the deaths of 655 Argentinians and three Falkland Islanders.
During a visit to Ireland this month, Mr Trump said the US would be forced to ‘settle’ any fresh dispute over the Falklands.
He suggested the UK would not ‘be willing to travel that far’ if Argentina invaded the Falklands again, adding it would be ‘weeks by boat’.
He said: ‘I’m not sure they’re doing that. They have a little problem with immigration.
‘They have a little problem with energy and then have some other problems they have to take care of.’
He added: ‘I’m sure I’ll be called into that potential disaster, but if they do, I’ll probably be able to settle, settle it out.’
