Monday, July 13th 2026 - 09:24 UTC
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently said sovereignty rests with the United Kingdom and that the islanders' right to self-determination is paramount
Argentina's foreign minister, Pablo Quirno, has reaffirmed his country's claim to the Falklands in a lengthy article published in the newspaper La Nación, in which he rejected the validity of the 2013 referendum and argued that sovereignty over the archipelago cannot be determined by its inhabitants. The text restates Buenos Aires' long-standing position and appeared days before the World Cup semifinal between Argentina and England.
“Time does not transform an illegitimate occupation into sovereignty,” Quirno wrote, describing the dispute as a “special and particular colonial situation” originating, in his argument, in the breach of Argentina's territorial integrity following the British occupation of 1833. The minister argued that the principle of self-determination does not apply in this case, on the grounds that the archipelago's current population was “implanted” by the occupying power and therefore cannot decide the territory's ownership. In the same text, however, he noted that Argentina's constitutional mandate requires respect for the way of life of the islands' inhabitants.
