Argentina’s president Javier Milei says he accepts the Falkland Islands are currently “in the hands of the UK".
In an interview with the BBC, the right-wing politician vowed to get the islands back through diplomatic channels but said there was “no instant solution”.
His language on the status of the Falklands is different from past leaders who have historically maintained the islands are Argentine.
President Milei admitted it could take decades to try to gain sovereignty of the Falkland Islands from the UK and said Argentina does not “seek conflict”.
It comes after he promised a “roadmap” for the islands to become Argentine, on the 42nd anniversary of the Falklands War in early April.
Despite what that says, the British haven’t bothered extracting it, which I think is pretty telling.
They’ve done a lot of exploration, though. I worked on some of the kit that went there. It came back pretty beat up, so it’s rough out there, but there’s plenty of oil.
New oil extractions were halted in the North Sea for a while, not extracting it doesn’t mean much. It just means it’s not been deemed profitable enough yet.