It had been barely two hours since the end of the match in which Argentina defeated England in the 2026 Football World Cup, and the screens were still showing the image of the Albiceleste players celebrating with a flag that said “the Malvinas are Argentine.” It was at that moment that Javier Milei’s government chose to announce a formal note that had been submitted at least two days earlier to the United Kingdom embassy to express its “strongest rejection” of the incursion of the military ship HMS Medway into South Atlantic waters under the jurisdiction of the South American country.
The information was released by the Argentine Foreign Ministry on Wednesday night, when thousands of people were celebrating in the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities the comeback of Lionel Messi and his teammates with a 2-1 victory over the English team. According to the official statement, the British Navy patrol ship HMS Medway, “illegally deployed in the Malvinas Islands,” made movements that “were not duly notified in accordance with the current bilateral agreements and declarations,” and that “involved transit through Argentine territorial waters.”
The government, the note adds, “firmly rejects this British military incursion into areas under Argentine jurisdiction, which adds to a sustained policy of unilateral acts incompatible with United Nations resolutions and with the duty of both parties to refrain from altering the situation while the sovereignty dispute remains unresolved.”
Argentina considers the Malvinas and other southern archipelagos, which remain under British control, part of its territory. In 1982, the military dictatorship governing the South American country attempted to forcibly reclaim the islands but was defeated by the United Kingdom in a war in which 649 Argentine soldiers and 255 English soldiers died.
The presence of the military ship had been reported a week earlier by the government of the province of Tierra del Fuego, located at the southern tip of Argentina and under whose jurisdiction the islands fall. “It is not an administrative omission nor an isolated incident, but a new manifestation of British bad faith in the South Atlantic,” said Andrés Dachary, provincial secretary of Malvinas, at the time. Since then, Fuegian authorities and opposition leaders demanded a formal complaint from the national Executive. “The Foreign Ministry issued the protest statement to the United Kingdom about the English ship two hours after the match ended. They didn’t dare before. You can’t get more spineless,” said legislator Germán Martínez, head of the Peronist bloc in the Chamber of Deputies.
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The World Cup semifinal match was experienced in the South American country as much more than a sporting competition, with the Malvinas issue front and center. The governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom had agreed with FIFA, before the match, that the public would not be allowed to enter the stadium in Atlanta, USA, with signs or flags containing political slogans. The Albiceleste players, however, displayed on the field, when celebrating the result, a flag made by a group of fans with a hotel sheet, with a legend claiming Argentine sovereignty over the islands.
After the match, Milei celebrated the Argentine victory and referred to the flag displayed by the team. These are, he said, “things that happen on the field with the players, they are not part of diplomacy.” For the president, “in the worst case, the [team] Argentina will receive a financial sanction […] What the players do is understandable, emotion wins and makes a sanction be discussed,” he said in an interview with El Observador.
“Through diplomatic means we are getting closer every day to the recovery of the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime space,” Milei also said this Thursday on his social networks (probably he meant to write surrounding and not circulating). His message was accompanied by a post indicating that the head of the Republican Party in Israel, Marc Zell, had asked Donald Trump for the USA to support Argentina in its stance on the southern archipelago.
The claim over the Malvinas is an uncomfortable issue for the ultra president, before which he tries to balance the majority sentiment in the country and his own ideas. Milei has acknowledged his admiration for Margaret Thatcher – the British prime minister during the war with Argentina – has defended the islanders’ right to self-determination – “we seek that they prefer to be Argentine,” he has said – and advocates for rapprochement with the United Kingdom. In fact, although there is no official confirmation yet, the Casa Rosada plans a trip by Milei to London, possibly next October: it would be the first visit by an Argentine head of state since 1998.
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