BUENOS AIRES – Argentina’s President Javier Milei specialises in theatre and throwing verbal bombs. That’s how he came from nowhere to win power in 2023 from the Peronist movement that had controlled this country for decades. Memorably, he wielded a chainsaw on the campaign trail to show his zeal for change, shouting: “Libertad, Carajo! Long live Freedom, damn it!”
No wonder Donald Trump is a fan who has just given his buddy Milei the gift of suggesting the US is rethinking its long-standing neutrality on the Falklands Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. The US President also suggested on Thursday that he might not come to Britain’s aid in a potential territorial dispute over the Falklands. Even allowing for Trump’s predilection for shooting his mouth off, his intent was plain to see: to punish Britain for not giving him the help he sought in his disastrous Iran war, and to make the new UK Government step up defence spending.
Milei used a televised address to the nation overnight to declare that the “winds of change” favourable to Argentina’s claim to the islands were “blowing around the world”.
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He said: “Recently, President Trump declared that the US is re-evaluating its historic position in relation to the Malvinas”, using the Argentinian name for the Falklands. He added that Britain was facing “multiple crises of a migratory, demographic and economic nature that are unlikely to be resolved. It is clear that they are on a path of decline. Argentina’s future, however, is flourishing and will prevail.”
