Argentina threatens legal action against UK over Falkland Islands oil exploration
President Javier Milei set a two-week deadline for the Sea Lion oilfield project to be scrapped.
Argentina threatens legal action against UK over Falkland Islands oil exploration
Argentina’s president has threatened to pursue a legal challenge against the British government unless it stops oil exploration off the coast of the Falkland Islands.
In a social media post, President Javier Milei gave the Sea Lion oilfield project, a joint venture involving Israeli and British companies, a two-week deadline to be abandoned.
The companies say they hold valid licences issued by Britain.
His remarks intensify tensions between the UK and Argentina over sovereignty of the archipelago, called Las Malvinas in Argentina, more than 40 years after a British military task force drove out Argentine forces that had invaded the territory in 1982.
Milei said that if the two-week deadline was not met, he had "instructed the Foreign Ministry and legal teams to initiate international arbitration" against the UK over what he described as "the illegal plundering of our resources through the Sea Lion Project".
He also warned the UK that if the "illegitimate exploitation" of the region did not stop within two weeks, Argentina would bring the issue before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
The International Tribunal is an independent judicial body in Hamburg responsible for the fair application of the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The move follows Milei’s sharp criticism of the UN in his speech at the General Assembly, where he accused it of failing to act over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.
He said the UN had become "a useless organisation" that only serves "arrogant parasites dressed up as well-intentioned bureaucrats".
Since then, UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said Argentina "lacks the ability" to retake the Falklands by force.
Milei had earlier described the Sea Lion oilfield as a "clear and present danger".
The Sea Lion oilfield, about 130 miles (209 km) from the Falkland Islands, is estimated to contain 1.7 billion barrels of oil.
Two oil companies – Britain's Rockhopper Exploration and Israel's Navitas Petroleum – are expected to start extracting from the oilfield within two years.
Both companies have previously emphasised that Sea Lion has valid licences from the Falkland Islands.
In a 2013 referendum, island residents voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory, with 99.8% in favour and only three against.
Argentine forces landed on the Falklands in 1982 to assert a territorial claim, triggering a 74-day war after a British military task force expelled them.
The conflict caused the deaths of 255 British military personnel, three islanders and 649 Argentine military personnel.