British Labour rules out Falklands talks with Milei

British Labour Party foreign affairs spokesman David Lammy responded on Monday (1st) with a resounding “no” to the question whether a government led by his party would be willing to negotiate with the president of Argentina, the libertarian Javier Milei, over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

In a meeting with the foreign press in London, Lammy, who will presumably be the next head of British diplomacy, addressed the Labour Party’s foreign policy in the event that his party wins the British general election on Thursday (4), as all polls predict.

Despite refusing to talk about the sovereignty of the islands, which Argentina has claimed since 1833, the Labor Party spokesman said he wanted a “dialogue” with the South American country on matters of bilateral interest.

Lammy, whose parents are of Guyanese origin, stressed the interest of a government eventually led by Keir Starmer in fostering greater ties with countries in the Caribbean and South America.

The spokesman did not elaborate on his views on relations with Latin American countries or the dispute over the Falklands, but stressed that Labour’s foreign policy would be “consistent”, unlike, he said, the constant changes of prime ministers and cabinet ministers in recent Conservative governments.

After taking office in December last year, the Argentine president stressed his desire to push for a better relationship with the United Kingdom and try to resolve the Falklands sovereignty issue as former British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did with the former colony of Hong Kong.

After intense negotiations, Thatcher agreed to return Hong Kong to China in July 1997.

The claim to sovereignty over the South Atlantic islands has always been a pending issue for Argentina.

The United Kingdom and Argentina fought a war over sovereignty over the Falklands in 1982, after the Argentine military junta occupied them on April 2 that year, but the war ended two months later with a British victory.