Argentina: Tensions with England After Cameron’s Visit to Falkland Islands
These islands, the Malvinas in their original Spanish name, are at the center of a long-running dispute between Buenos Aires and London
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron landed on February 19 in the Falkland Islands, a remote archipelago in the South Atlantic that is at the center of a long-running territorial dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. There was even a war between the two countries in 1982, which was won by London. The visit to the island was the first stop on a trip that will also take Cameron to Paraguay and then to the G20 foreign ministers’ summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The visit was not welcomed by Gustavo Melella, governor of Tierra del Fuego province, who called Cameron “persona non grata.” “No colonial representative of a state that encroaches on our territorial integrity by tarnishing the memory and eternal sacrifice of our Malvinas heroes will be welcome in our province,” Melella explained, as reported by Italian news agency ANSA. “Cameron’s presence in our Malvinas Islands represents a new British provocation, which seeks to undermine our legitimate rights of sovereignty over our territories, and supports colonialism in the 21st century.”
Argentine President Javier Milei, when he was not yet elected to Casa Rosada, hoped for a diplomatic solution to the issue. Yesterday’s Cameron’s words sound like a belated response to that statement. “The Falkland Islands are a precious part of the British family, the issue of sovereignty will not be discussed,” he said, adding that London supports “the archipelago’s right to self-determination…”