Britain has said the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is not up for negotiation, after Argentina’s newly-elected president promised to “get them back”.
Javier Milei, who won a resounding victory in Argentina’s presidential election on Sunday, said Buenos Aires had “non-negotiable” sovereignty over the Falklands, the archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean which is known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina.
Mr Milei said during a TV debate in the run-up to the election that “we have to make every effort to recover the islands through diplomatic channels”.
On Tuesday a spokesperson for prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “The UK has no doubt about the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, and indeed South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
“The UK government will continue to proactively defend the Falkland islanders’ right to self determination.”
The Falklands are 300 miles “off the coast” of Argentina.
By that logic, France, let’s say, has much greater rights to Britain’s resources which is only 25 miles away, and Canada will no doubt be laying claim to Greenland very soon on account of it being only 10 miles off their coast.
You jest, but territorial disputes between Canada and Russia over the Arctic are a thing, and there was an active territorial dispute between Canada and Greenland over Hans Island that wasn’t resolved until last year.
Obviously I don’t mean to suggest that any of the stuff you mentioned could reasonably come true, just that it’s less removed from reality than you probably realized.