Argentine President Javier Milei has threatened legal action against the U.K. over an oil exploration project off the coast of the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory at the center of a yearslong sovereignty dispute. Setting a two-week deadline on Monday, Milei said if the Sea Lion offshore oil project—a venture between British and Israeli companies—has not been stopped, then he will take the matter to the “International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea,” an independent judicial body responsible for the application of the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea. Milei said Argentina’s Foreign Ministry and legal teams have been prepped to “initiate international arbitration” against the U.K.
The oil companies—Britain's Rockhopper Exploration and Israel's Navitas Petroleum—have said they have valid licenses for the planned extractions. TIME has reached out to the companies for further comment. The threat from Milei comes after weeks of escalating tensions between Argentina and the U.K.
The Falkland Islands, known in Argentina as “Islas Malvinas,” sit roughly 300 miles from the Argentine coast, and have been a British territory for almost two centuries, but Argentina has never accepted British sovereignty over the area. As such, Milei is adamant the oil exploration project would amount to an “illegal plundering of [Argentina’s] resources.” U.S. President Donald Trump further stoked tensions in late August when he suggested the U.S. is reviewing its neutrality on the sovereignty dispute.
In response to Milei’s deadline, a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Foreign Office told TIME: "These latest threats are another attempt to deny the Falkland Islanders the right to pursue their own economic development and decide their own future. As the Prime Minister [Andy Burnham] has made clear, our support for the Falkland Islanders' right of self-determination is unwavering, and we will always defend it.” In a 2013 referendum, Falkland residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining under British rule. The referendum saw 92% of all eligible voters turn out, with 99.8% of votes being “yes.” Yet the topic continues to be a rallying cry in Argentina for Milei, as it was for the Argentine Presidents that came before him.
There are vast energy reserves in the Sea Lion oilfield, with the basin estimated to contain 1.7 billion barrels of oil. The statement said that Milei’s office would seek to initiate arbitral proceedings under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—an international treaty that sets rules for the use and governance of the world's oceans and their resources. Marcelo Kohen, a professor emeritus of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, says the two-week ultimatum is tied to a procedure Argentina has to follow before seeking provisional measures from the tribunal.
Once the case has been taken to the judicial body, “both parties will go to the tribunal, and there will be oral hearings, and then the tribunal will decide whether the United Kingdom must stop the exploitation of hydrocarbon resources.” This isn’t the first time Argentina has turned to international legal mechanisms to resolve maritime disputes. In October 2012, Argentina initiated arbitration after Ghana detained an Argentine naval training ship. The tribunal unanimously ordered Ghana to release the vessel.
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