UK government says sovereignty of Malvinas Islands is ‘not up for negotiation’

Responding to remarks by Argentina's foreign minister, the UK government insisted on Monday that the sovereignty of the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands and Gibraltar was "not up for negotiation."

The remarks came after Downing Street confirmed last week that it would return a remote archipelago to Mauritius, prompting a reaction in Buenos Aires over its own sovereignty dispute with London.

Britain announced last Thursday will hand back the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius, its former colony. However, it said it would maintain a key military base there.

Soon after Argentina's Foreign Minister Diana Mondino reacted by saying that her nation would "recover full sovereignty" over the Malvinas – the disputed British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean that the UK calls the Falkland Islands.

"We celebrate this step in the right direction," Mondino said in a post on Instagram, hailing the move as a "milestone."

"Travelling the path we have begun, with concrete actions and not empty rhetoric, we are going to recover full sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands," she added.

Asked about Mondino's comments on Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official spokesperson told reporters that the return of the Chagos would have "no bearing" on other overseas territories.

The spokesman said the deal with Mauritius should not be seen as a precedent for other disputes because Chagos was "a unique situation with a unique history, it has no bearing on other territories."

"There is no question about British sovereignty of those two, it is not up for negotiation," he said, referring to the Malvinas and Gibraltar, a small British enclave in Spain.

"The Falklands is not up for discussion – that remains our position," said the spokesperson.

The UK government has been under pressure for decades to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, including from the International Court of Justice.

But it had resisted because of the military base on Diego García island, which plays a key role for US operations in the Indian Ocean and Gulf.

The deal comes after nearly two years of negotiations and marks a significant turnaround after decades of British dismissals of Mauritian sovereignty claims. 

At the start of talks in 2023, the two sides agreed that the military base would continue to operate whatever the outcome. In 2016, the UK extended the US lease of the military base until 2036.

The treaty could also pave the way for the return of Chagos islanders, who were expelled by the UK in the 1970s as the military base was developed.

But with no permanent population – and with Diego García possibly the only habitable island but remaining off-limits as part of the deal – resettlement looks unlikely.

The Malvinas/Falkland Islands, home to just over 3,000 people, lie nearly 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) from London and some 480 kilometres from the coast of Argentina.

Britain sent a military task force to reclaim the islands in 1982 after Argentine troops invaded and claimed sovereignty.

-TIMES/AFP