Argentina and the U.K. summoned each others’ ambassadors this week as tension between the two countries escalated over the territorial dispute involving the Falkland Islands, known as the Malvinas in Argentina.
Yesterday, the Argentine government announced that Deputy Foreign Minister Eduardo Zuain had called in British ambassador John Freeman to demand an explanation over media reports that the U.K. had conducted mass electronic surveillance on Argentina between 2006 and 2011 to prevent Argentina from launching attempts to reclaim the Falklands. The allegations, made earlier this month by the online publication The Intercept, were based on documents previously released by U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
A statement released by the Argentine Foreign Ministry indicated Zuain also warned Freeman that Argentina would initiate legal action against multiple British energy companies for carrying out petroleum exploration activity on the continental shelf off the coast of the Falklands without the permission of Argentina’s Energy Secretariat. Later on Thursday, Argentina filed a lawsuit at the general prosecutor’s office in Buenos Aires against the British firms Rockhopper Exploration Plc, Premier Oil Plc, Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd, Noble Energy Inc. and Edison International Spa. The lawsuit follows press releases from the oil companies Premier Oil Plc and Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd. on April 2 that they had made an oil well discovery off the South Atlantic Islands after nine months of drilling.
The events in Buenos Aires were preceded by a diplomatic meeting in London on Wednesday between British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro. Hammond reportedly told Castro that his government disapproved of the “unacceptable” statements made by Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in recent weeks. On April 2—exactly 33 years after the 10-week Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas) broke out between the UK and Argentina in 1982—Fernández de Kirchner had stated that “International law and dialogue, not militarization, are the path to a reunion and sovereignty. We will see the islands form part of our territory again. It’s not just wishful thinking.”
A British Foreign Office spokesman said on April 9 that the U.K. “has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and surrounding maritime areas, nor about the Falkland Islanders’ right to decide their own future. We object strongly to recent statements by the Argentine president and the Argentine ambassador to London and so summoned the ambassador to account for these.”
