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View all search resultsMalvinas: The strength of a just cause
The Question of the Malvinas Islands embodies Argentina’s territorial integrity, oceanic projection, bicontinental identity, wealth and projection into the South Atlantic.
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Argentina's fans hold a banner reading “The Malvinas are Argentine“ on July 19 as they gather near the Obelisk after Argentina lost the FIFA World Cup final soccer match against Spain in Buenos Aires. (AFP/Luis Robayo)
O
nly a few weeks ago, the Question of the Malvinas Islands once again took center stage on the international agenda. The Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (C24), and the States Parties and Associated States of Mercosur reiterated their call for Argentina and the United Kingdom to resume negotiations in order to resolve the sovereignty dispute through peaceful means.
These recent pronouncements reaffirmed that a sovereignty dispute exists between the Argentine Republic and the UK over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas. This dispute must be resolved through bilateral negotiations, by peaceful means, and in accordance with international law.
The value of these resolutions lies in keeping alive the obligation to negotiate while making increasingly evident the UK’s decision to continue disregarding that mandate. Maintaining this position requires sustained effort, where every consensus achieved demands active, persistent and technically sound diplomacy.
The Question of the Malvinas Islands embodies Argentina’s territorial integrity, oceanic projection, bicontinental identity, wealth and projection into the South Atlantic. On the basis of that conviction, President Javier Milei has reaffirmed the legitimate and unrenounceable nature of our claim. Guided by that mandate, I am honored, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, to undertake the commitment to uphold this cause with firmness and perseverance.
Our claim rests on historical and legal foundations that Argentina has upheld continuously since its independence. As successor to Spain’s rights, in accordance with the principle of State succession, Argentina exercised effective acts of authority over the Islands, formally took possession of them in 1820, and created the Political and Military Commandancy in 1829.
In 1833, the UK occupied the Islands through an act of force to which our country never consented, violating Argentina’s territorial integrity, expelling our national authorities and the population lawfully established there, populating the territory with its own settlers, and preventing Argentine citizens from settling on the Islands. That event gave rise to a colonial situation that continues to this day.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2065, adopted in 1965, formally recognized the existence of a sovereignty dispute and established bilateral negotiations as the means of resolving it, bearing in mind the interests of the inhabitants. The 1982 South Atlantic conflict neither altered the legal nature of the dispute nor resolved it. The international community reaffirmed then — through UN General Assembly Resolution 37/9 — that a peaceful solution remains the only path forward.
