The Government of the United Kingdom has responded to the allusions of the Argentine president, Javier Milei, to the Malvinas Islands during his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, emphasizing that London maintains an unyielding stance on the sovereignty of these territories and their adjacent waters, and requesting that its position be incorporated into the official record of the session.
"The United Kingdom has no doubts about its sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime areas of both territories," the British Executive has concluded in a statement released on social media.
Alongside the defense of its sovereignty over these overseas territories, London has focused on the principle of self-determination. In this regard, it has claimed the right of the population of the Malvinas to freely choose their political future and to promote their own economic, social, and cultural development.
The British authorities have emphasized that this principle is enshrined both in the United Nations Charter and in Article 1 of the United Nations Covenants on Human Rights. From this perspective, they have reiterated that the inhabitants of the archipelago enjoy the same rights as any other people to determine their political status and direct their development.
The British note also responds to the references of the Argentine State Minister to various UN resolutions and regional diplomatic pronouncements that call for the opening of negotiations on the sovereignty of the Malvinas.
For the United Kingdom, these resolutions and declarations do not modify the international obligations linked to self-determination, as, in its view, the legally binding nature of this right cannot be limited or nuanced by other diplomatic positions.
In its message, the British Executive also describes its relationship with the Malvinas and with the rest of the British overseas territories as a bond based on cooperation and shared values.
On the other hand, London reproaches Buenos Aires for continuing to reject the application of the principle of self-determination to the inhabitants of the islands and criticizes it for using different international forums to insist on its claims regarding the sovereignty of the archipelago, considering that this attitude is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the UN Charter.
The British statement is disseminated after Javier Milei claimed this Wednesday the Argentine sovereignty over the archipelago, under British administration, and questioned the role of the United Nations for not "enforcing" its resolutions. "There are no lack of words or resolutions, what is lacking is that they have consequences," he said.
The Argentine president lamented that nothing "has changed" since half a century ago the General Assembly approved resolution 3149, the first on the Malvinas, which urged both parties not to take "unilateral measures while the dispute remained open," and defended that the Argentine authorities have used the tools at their disposal to uphold their claim over the archipelago, in what he described as a "peaceful, practical, and effective defense."