For the first time in 30 years
British Foreign Secretary visits Falkland Islands
February 20, 2024, 3:07 a.m
42 years after the Falklands War, Argentina’s new president Milei wants to negotiate the return of the British overseas territory. Foreign Minister Cameron then pays a visit to the islands.
David Cameron was the first British Foreign Secretary to visit the Falkland Islands in 30 years. Britain will “protect and defend” the islands in the South Atlantic as long as they want to be “part of the British family,” Cameron told the British news agency PA. He hopes that this will apply for a “very, very long time, possibly forever.” Cameron was flown over the islands in a helicopter and visited, among other things, two sites of the Falklands War.
The governor of the southern Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, criticized Cameron’s visit to the Falkland Islands. The trip represents a “new British provocation aimed at undermining our legitimate sovereign rights over our territories and maintaining colonialism in the 21st century,” he wrote at X.
The Falkland Islands, located 400 kilometers off the coast of Argentina and 13,000 kilometers from Great Britain, have been under the control of the United Kingdom since 1833. They are inhabited by around 3,000 people, most of whom are of British descent. Argentina claims the area for itself. On April 2, 1982, the then Argentine military junta began an invasion of the islands, prompting Britain to send warships. The Falklands War ended on June 14 with the Argentine surrender. There were 649 deaths on the Argentine side, 255 on the British side and three among the islanders. In 2013, the population voted by a large majority to remain part of Great Britain in a referendum.
Argentine head of state Javier Milei, who was sworn in last December, recently called for negotiations and expressed the hope of bringing the archipelago under Argentine control through diplomatic channels. However, Cameron made it clear before his departure that he rejected this. “As long as they want to remain part of the family, the issue of sovereignty is not up for discussion,” he explained, referring to the islands’ residents. Argentina and Great Britain have agreed to “disagree, and do so in a polite manner,” on the issue, the British Foreign Office said. The last British Foreign Secretary to visit the overseas territory was Douglas Hurd in 1994.