Argentine President Javier Milei announced a suite of stringent executive and legislative measures Thursday night aimed at blocking unauthorized offshore oil exploitation in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), declaring further resource extraction a direct violation of national security.
Surrounded by his full Cabinet during a televised national address, Milei reaffirmed Argentina’s territorial claim, asserting that the islands belong to the South American nation “historically and legally.”
“The islands have been part of Argentine territory since the origins of our nation,” Milei said. “In 1833, the United Kingdom occupied the Falklands, expelled the Argentine authorities, and established a colonial situation that continues to this day.” He added that the islanders “do not have a legitimate right to self-determination.”
The president pointed specifically to the Sea Lion oil project, operated in the North Falklands Basin by British firm Rockhopper Exploration and Israel-based Navitas Petroleum, as an imminent threat.
“If we do not act firmly and swiftly today, in a few months they will have the capacity to appropriate the oil reserves that lie beneath our sea,” Milei warned. “If we allow it, we will create an incentive for the British government to deepen its occupation of our islands and the exploitation of our resources.”
To counter the project, Milei signed an executive decree expediting sanctioning procedures against entities involved in unauthorized hydrocarbon operations on Argentina’s continental shelf. Under the order, the government will disqualify companies, their shareholders, directors, and commercial suppliers from operating on mainland Argentina.
Milei also announced he will send an urgent bill to Congress to harden existing laws. The proposed legislation would impose identical penalties and bans on third-party service providers and contractors, permanently bar non-compliant entities from public or private sector contracts in Argentina, and authorize trials in absentia for violators.
Milei framed the move around what he described as shifting global diplomatic dynamics, pointing to recent remarks by the US President Donald Trump that Washington is reevaluating its historic position on the Falklands dispute.
“This threat is not innocuous,” Milei said. “The United States is evaluating this change in position because they know that in Argentina they have a reliable partner, aligned with Western values, in a strategically important position that could be a valuable ally in the decades to come.”
Closing his address, the president called on political opponents to set aside domestic partisan rivalries.
“We can discuss anything else, but this issue demands a pause. It demands that we lay down our weapons and present a united front to the world as a nation,” Milei said. “Ensuring our preeminence in this territory is not a political whim. It is a matter of survival.”