Argentina has been accused of trying to “harass and cancel” the Falkland islanders after persuading the European Union to refer to the archipelago as the Islas Malvinas for the first time.
British officials accused Buenos Aires of “political posturing” before Argentine elections in October. Rishi Sunak criticised Brussels for the “regrettable choice of words” after Argentina’s preferred name for the Falklands, a British overseas territory, was used in a diplomatic text.
The row began after the EU agreed to sign a joint declaration with Argentina and other Latin American countries — a bloc known as Celac — that referred to the islands in the South Atlantic as both the Islas Malvinas and the Falklands.
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The Argentinian government hailed the political text as a “diplomatic triumph”, regarding it as evidence of European support for their disputed claim to the islands over which Britain and Argentina fought in 1982.
Their posturing irritated both London and Brussels, with a European Commission spokesman being forced to deny that the EU’s official position on the sovereignty of the islands had changed.
“There is not any council discussion on this matter” he said. “The EU does not take any position on such issues without a council mandate.”
However, the very fact that the EU had agreed to the use of Malvinas in an official statement annoyed ministers in London, with one source describing the move as “irritating and frustrating”.
Sunak’s spokesman said the prime minister believed that it would have been “entirely unacceptable for the EU to question the Falkland islanders’ right to decide their own future”.
He added: “To be clear, the Falkland Islands are British, that was the choice of the islanders themselves.
“The EU has rightly now clarified that their position on the Falklands has not changed after their regrettable choice of words.
“The concern is any suggestion that EU states would recognise Argentina’s claims on the Falklands, which they have now clarified is incorrect.”
A Foreign Office source said that islanders were thriving in a diverse economy “against a backdrop of Argentine political posturing and officially sponsored petty attempts to harass and cancel them”.
Alison Blake, governor of the Falkland Islands, expressed disappointment that the Argentine government had “misrepresented” the EU’s position in the joint communiqué.
She told The Times: “The Argentine government’s commentary on the joint EU/Celac communiqué misrepresents the EU’s position, which was disappointing but not surprising. The EU has corrected this, confirming on the record that its position (not to take a position on sovereignty) has not changed. The UK’s position is also unchanged.
“The UK has no doubt of our sovereignty and will continue to uphold the Falkland islanders’ right of self-determination. The wishes of the islanders to remain a British self-governing overseas territory are clear, and they voted overwhelmingly to stay so in a 2013 referendum with 99.8 per cent of the vote.”
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Teslyn Barkman, deputy chairwoman of the Falklands legislative assembly, said they were “hugely disappointed” that the EU had decided “without input from the Falkland Islands or the UK government” to refer to “our islands by a name that has been given to us by our aggressive and hostile neighbour”.
“We urge EU member states and others to respect our wishes and our right to self-determination, which is a fundamental right enshrined in article one of the Charter of the United Nations,” she said.
The political row also spread to Argentina amid claims that the government had overstated its diplomatic win that forced the EU into distancing itself from the wording of the declaration.
Santiago Cafiero, Argentina’s foreign minister, had said he hoped to use the summit declaration as a precedent to open dialogue with EU countries on a subject that was off-limits before Brexit.
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“Off the back of this declaration the Argentine government hopes to further expand dialogue with the EU regarding the question of the Malvinas Islands,” he said.
But Roberto García Moritán, a former deputy foreign affairs minister, argued this was not the case. “The fact that the government considers that declaration a historic victory only reflects the degree of deterioration of Argentina’s foreign policy,” he said.
“After Brexit, an active diplomacy from Argentina in Brussels and in all European capitals would have been expected to achieve a position of greater support regarding the colonial question. However, it has not been the case,” he said.
In Buenos Aires, Guillermo Carmona, Argentina’s minister for Malvinas affairs, pointed to the fact that the senior EU leaders Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen — respectively presidents of the European Council and Commission — had signed the declaration.
Until two years ago, “the EU considered the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands as overseas territories from the EU, and even after Brexit, there was a reluctance from the EU to mention the Malvinas sovereignty dispute in the Malvinas question”, he said.
“Now, however, after [the Brussels declaration], the EU acknowledges there is a sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the UK over the Malvinas Islands, and that this dispute must be solved in accordance with international law.”
A source close to James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said he hoped to visit the Falklands in the near future to underline the government’s total support for the islands.
