Argentina vows to stop Falklands offshore oil exploitation

Quirno’s warning at Buenos Aires thinktank

Argentina’s foreign minister has declared that his government will move to block oil drilling in waters around the Falkland Islands, framing it as a step toward reclaiming sovereignty. Pablo Quirno told an audience at the Argentine Council for International Relations in Buenos Aires that the UK’s refusal to negotiate and its facilitation of a major offshore project were unacceptable. He said President Javier Milei’s administration had a strategy for the “peaceful” assertion of Argentinian sovereignty.

Quirno condemned the UK for what he called unilateral measures over natural resources in disputed maritime areas. “The British government not only refuses to enter into negotiations to resolve the sovereignty dispute, but is also taking unilateral measures regarding the exploitation of natural resources in the maritime areas that are part of the controversy,” he said. David Cairns, the UK ambassador to Argentina, was in the audience and left shortly after Quirno returned to his seat.

Last month, Milei told the UN General Assembly that the international body had failed Argentina, and he singled out the Sea Lion oil development in the North Falkland Basin as an “unlawful act.” Argentina has accused the UK of flouting a 1976 UN resolution that called on both parties to avoid unilateral actions over the islands. On 28 September, Milei gave the UK a two-week deadline to halt the project or face arbitration under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Quirno warned that third parties helping the Falkland islanders exploit resources would face consequences. “Whoever contributes, directly or indirectly, to the illegitimate exploration or exploitation of resources that belong to all Argentinians will hardly be able to aspire to share in the benefits of our country’s growth,” he said. A new shipping link between Chile and the Falklands is due to open by the end of the year.

The islands, known as Las Malvinas in Argentina, are home to about 3,600 people. The UK says they will remain a British overseas territory as long as the inhabitants wish, citing a 2013 referendum in which 99.8% voted to remain British. But Argentina’s government last week rejected what it called “the manipulation of the principle of self-determination of peoples that the United Kingdom seeks to impose upon it.”