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Argentina has responded harshly to the UK Government’s slapdown of Argentine demands for sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.<\/p>\n
The country’s newly elected President Javier Milei has previously declared the Argentine claim to the islands is “non-negotiable”.<\/p>\n
Milei had suggested the UK should hand over Las Malvinas, as the islands are called in Argentina, in a deal similar to that between China and Britain over Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
In response, Downing Street said: “The UK has no doubt about the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, and indeed South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.<\/p>\n
“The UK Government will continue to proactively defend the Falkland islanders’ right to self-determination.”<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Rishi Sunak’s blunt five-word slapdown after Argentina’s Falklands demand[LATEST] <\/strong><\/p>\n This in turn sparked an angry declaration from the Argentinian Foreign Ministry which called the Falklands part of the “national territory”.<\/p>\n The Argentine Foreign Ministry said: “In these 40 years of democracy, the various Argentine governments have demanded that the United Kingdom resume bilateral negotiations, which is a State policy enshrined in the first transitional clause of the National Constitution.<\/p>\n “This provision ratifies the legitimate and imprescriptible sovereignty of the Argentine Republic over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the corresponding maritime and island areas, as an integral part of the national territory, and establishes that the recovery of those territories and the full exercise of sovereignty, respecting the way of life of their inhabitants, and in accordance with the principles of international law, constitute a permanent and un-renounceable objective of the Argentine people.”<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> The statement added: “As a sign of this commitment to a peaceful solution to the dispute, on 2 March, Argentina proposed to the United Kingdom a renewed bilateral agenda on the South Atlantic that envisages the establishment of a formal process of negotiations to address issues of mutual interest, including the resumption of negotiations on sovereignty.”<\/p>\n The British-governed territory sits some 300 miles from mainland Argentina.<\/p>\n A bloody war was fought over the Falklands in 1982 after Argentinian forces invaded and briefly occupied the territory.<\/p>\n
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