Domestic politics can rarely be ruled out of the equation when the Falklands issue flares back up. However, Buenos Aires argues that the matter has become urgent: “A clear and urgent danger”, as Milei put it.
With two energy companies – the Israeli-owned Navitas Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration from the UK – due to undertake exploration work on the Sea Lion oilfield off the Falklands coast within two years, the issue has new impetus. Argentina “cannot allow” the companies to “appropriate the oil reserves under our sea”, he said. “We will not stand by with our arms folded,” he added.
In his speech, Javier Milei painted Argentina as a reliable and “trustworthy partner” to Washington and he enjoys Trump’s support, both ideologically and personally. The two men are close allies in a vision of the Western Hemisphere which Trump calls the ‘Don-roe Doctrine’, a play on words on the 19th Century ‘Monroe Doctrine’ which exerted American domination over the continent. In essence, the two presidents want to see only like-minded leaders in power in the Americas.
Within such a new partnership and a reordering of the spheres of influence, it’s more than conceivable that Trump favours the Argentine leader over the British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, even if the issues at play transcend personality and party politics.
Perhaps the key question for the coming months, then, is whether the strength of the so-called “Don-roe Doctrine” outweighs the lasting history of the “Special Relationship”.
