Argentina’s president Javier Milei has demanded the return of Islas Malvenas (Image: Getty)
Argentina’s Javier Milei has demanded the UK return the Falkland Islands to Argentina and – if that wasn’t enough – the President now issued directions to on how Westminster can gift t back he long-disputed island territory.
While dubbing the United Kingdom as a country “in decline”, the Argentine leader called for a “consensus solution” and did not want to see the spat between nations turned into either a conflict where both parties “start yelling like savages” or worse: war.
In an interview given to British news journal The Economist, he now has issued a list of demands how he wants Britain to cede the long-disputed island territory to him.
He said, mere hours after his initial declaration to win the Falklands back to his home nation on Thursday night, the UK should handover the islands in the same way it did with Hong Kong.
“The UK did this with Hong Kong, so why not find the agreement so that sooner or later the islands return to Argentina? They’re ours,” he said, citing the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that saw the UK eventually hand Hong Kong back to China in 1997.
Under that agreement, however, the peopled of Hong Kong were never given a choice on the matter. Instead, world leaders played ‘swapsies’ with land like they were kids trading baseball cards. And so – spoiler alert – Hong Kong became a Chinese territory, whilst maintaining its own political system for 50 years.
China now stands widely accused of violating that 1984 agreement in its authoritarian crackdown on dissent by pro-democracy protesters. Hong Kong responded with harsh violence against its own people, jailing some on seemingly bogus charges of sedition, including newspaper boss Jimmy Lai, of the now defunct Apple Daily newspaper, who copped a 20 years jail term for rallying against the Chinese regime.
The Argentine president cast the UK as being in decline whilst piggybacking on recent comments made by US president Donald Trump on the disputed islands.
Javier Milei and his sideburns (Image: Getty)
As Trump seemed to suggest America may flake on its support of the British claim to the South Pacific islands, Milei seized on the chance to push for sanctions on oil companies drilling for oil around the Falklands.
The punitive measures will make it harder for mining companies to make mega-profits off of oil beds in the seas around the Falklands without Argentine consent.
UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband, however, has already dismissed the Island-related demands from Milei, stating that Britain’s commitment to defend the islands remains “unwavering”.
“The islands are British and will remain so because that is the overwhelming position of the islanders,” he added. “Their right of self-determination is paramount, grounded in international law, and we will resolutely uphold it.”
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch also had some choice words for Milei: “Javier Milei claims to admire Margaret Thatcher but forgets this lesson: Britain does not surrender to bullies.”
Parliament over on the Falkland Islands said the island nation would decide its own future, citing international law on sovereignty.
“Threats and claims have never held back the Falkland Islands development in the past, and they will not now,” they insisted.
In Argentina, the reaction to Milei’s big speech has failed to have the rousing impact he undoubtedly was aiming for. His critics have come out of the woodwork to report the Argentinian reaction to Milei’s national address as: ‘Meh’.
Milei and Trump (Image: Getty)
Milei-haters have also seized upon the Argentinian leader’s longstanding admiration for 80s-era UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who is widely reviled in the South American nation. It was under the Iron Lady that hundreds of Argentinian soldiers were slaughtered during the Falklands War; Argentina’s last failed attempt to wrestle control of the disputed islands from out of the UK’s grasp.
Argentinian newspaper columnist Facundo Falduto diluted Milei’s rhetoric on Thursday as mere empty words from a politician desperate to maintain his grasp on power.
Writing in Buenos Aires’ Perfil newspaper: “Thursday’s national address was a somewhat obvious and belated response. It wasn’t driven by genuine interest in the Falklands, but rather by concern for their own political survival.”
Falduto then issued a rather blistering takedown of Milei seizing the chance to piggyback on the Falkland issue in the wake of comments made by Donald Trump.
“The Republican [Trump] saying he’s ‘thinking about it’, that ‘everything is on the table’, is part of that negotiation, not a real change in foreign policy.”
He then chucked a thinly-veiled diss Milei’s way: “You’d have to be either incompetent or malicious to get your hopes up about that.”