The UK government insisted that the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is not negotiable, after announcing the return of an African archipelago in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. “The Falklands are British and will remain British”declared the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer.
Starmer defined the issue as something “personal” and recalled that his uncle “almost lost his life when his ship was torpedoed defending the Falklands.” In the same sense he expressed himself about the sovereignty of Gibraltar and clarified that “it is not negotiable.”
Starmer’s statement took place in the British Parliament, following the announcement by the United Kingdom last Thursday of the handover of the Chagos archipelago, made up of 55 islets, southeast of the African continentto the Republic of Mauritius, although adding that it would maintain the joint military base with the United States on the island of Diego García.
After the announcement, the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diana Mondino, reacted on Thursday on social networks demanding the delivery of the Malvinas to her country.
“We celebrate this step in the right direction and ending outdated practices,” Mondino said on X and Instagram.
“By following the path we have begun, with concrete actions and not empty rhetoric, we are going to recover the full sovereignty of our Malvinas Islands. The Malvinas were, are and will always be Argentine,” added the chancellor.
Asked on Monday about Mondino’s comments, an official Starmer spokesman said the return of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius has “no relation to other overseas territories.”
The spokesperson added that the agreement with Mauritius should not be seen as a precedent for other disputes, with the British government considering that in the case of Chagos it is “a unique situation based on its unique history and circumstances.”
“The British sovereignty of the Falklands (Malvinas) or Gibraltar is not negotiable,” added the spokesperson, also referring to the British enclave in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, claimed by Spain.
