Argentina protests UK warship movement near Malvinas, hours after World Cup clash

President Javier Milei’s government announced Wednesday it had lodged a formal protest with the United Kingdom over the movements of a British warship near the Malvinas Islands earlier this week.

The statement was released just hours after Argentina's national football team defeated England in the World Cup semi-finals.

Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said it had expressed its “strongest rejection” of the movements of the HMS Medway near the Malvinas Islands, which Britain calls the Falkland Islands. 

Buenos Aires alleged that the vessel had transited Argentine territorial waters without the required prior notification, according to an official statement published on X and shared by Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno.

Argentina said the ship's movements were “unauthorised and unlawful” and in breach of existing bilateral agreements.

A formal note of protest was delivered to the British Embassy in Buenos Aires on July 13.

Argentina said the incident occurred between July 1 and July 2, when the HMS Medway sailed through waters claimed by Buenos Aires en route to the Chilean city of Punta Arenas. 

The diplomatic note claimed the voyage had “heightened tensions in the South Atlantic” and formed part of a pattern of unilateral British actions that it said were incompatible with United Nations resolutions and undermined efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the sovereignty dispute. 

The statement concluded by reaffirming Argentina's “legitimate and imprescriptible sovereign rights” over the Malvinas, Georgias del Sur and Sandwich del Sur Islands (known in English as the Falkland, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands) and the surrounding maritime areas.

The Milei government claimed the British warship had been detected and tracked by the Argentine Navy as it made the voyage.

Sharing the statement on X, Quirno wrote: “In diplomacy, the work is not shouted about as goals are, but we are driven by the same conviction: the pride of being Argentine and the permanent defence of our interests.”

Minutes earlier, President Milei had insisted the sporting victory was “just a football match.”

“We must not mix the two things up. Let's not confuse the issues. The Malvinas will be recovered through wise diplomacy, not through cheap displays of patriotism,” Milei said in an interview with local broadcaster Radio Mitre.

“We are making enormous progress on the diplomatic front. We have succeeded in getting the United Nations to require the United Kingdom to sit down and talk with us, but let's not confuse the issues: it is a football match,” he added, though he celebrated the Albiceleste's “glorious step forward” in reaching the World Cup final.

Malvinas banner on pitch

Argentina's players held up a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Malvinas are Argentine”) after their 2-1 victory over England at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a move that could land them in hot water with FIFA.

The countries fought a brief but bloody war over the Malvinas in 1982 after Argentina invaded the territory and Britain dispatched a naval taskforce to retake it. The conflict claimed the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 Britons.

Midfielder Giovani Lo Celso carried a flag and placed it in one of the penalty areas, surrounded by several of his team-mates. 

The players’ actions defied the strict guidelines imposed for the match, which had previously been classified as “high-risk” by the US authorities. 

At a coordination meeting held last Monday in Virginia, FIFA, together with federal and state security agencies, devised a major operation involving more than 1,600 personnel and issued a stern warning that no form of political demonstration or hate speech would be permitted inside the stadium.

National Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva, had warned Argentine supporters in the run-up to the match that “items bearing any kind of provocative message, whether political or racial in nature, would be prohibited,” specifically clarifying that anyone attempting to enter with flags or T-shirts alluding to the Malvinas would not be allowed past the security checks. 

However, the restrictions imposed on the general public ended up being flouted on the pitch itself by the players themselves.

Tensions had already been heightened before kick-off when Vice-President Victoria Villarruel described the English as “usurping pirates” in a social media post.

– TIMES/AFP/NA