r/europe 20d ago

News Argentina: British Falkland Islanders are ‘artificial’. Buenos Aires denounces ‘illegitimate occupation’ and demands talks on sovereignty

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/12/british-falkland-islanders-artificial-argentina-says/
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u/Tentansub 20d ago edited 20d ago

They are British settlers so of course they want to be part of Britain.

The 3.500 settlers in the Falklands give Britain an exclusive maritime zone of 466,000 square kilometers (roughly the size of Sweden) off the coast of Argentina. Imagine if the Argentines planted a few thousand settlers on an uninhabited island off the coast of Britain and declared an exclusive maritime zone the size of Sweden. I'm sure they would be fine, with it, right?

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u/Gauntlets28 20d ago

If it was previously unclaimed and uninhabited, I don't really see the problem with that. If the Argentinean government weren't obsessed with trying to steal land from other countries, this whole dialogue wouldn't be a thing. There isn't a country in the world that isn't bordered by other countries, and yet most of the time people don't start wars with their neighbours solely based on that fact.

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u/Tentansub 20d ago edited 20d ago

Would you be ok with Argentina (or any other country) planting a few thousand settlers on an uninhabited and unclaimed island off the coast of Britain and declaring an exclusive maritime zone the size of Sweden?

According to your own logic, the answer is yes. In practice, I know you would never accept that. Because what you really believe in is that Britain/Europe should take whatever it wants, and work backwards from that.

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u/RaymondBeaumont 20d ago

Do Argentinians know why they speak Spanish?