Argentina’s government said Monday it will file criminal charges against energy company Navitas Petroleum and its executives over activities in the Falkland Islands.
The move follows comments on Friday by Argentine President Javier Milei, who vowed to sanction oil companies drilling in the British Overseas Territory as he pushed the South American nation’s sovereignty claims.
According to a statement from the presidency, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno will file the criminal complaint against several Navitas subsidiaries and partners operating in the area, along with their company directors.
The government claims the companies have broken Argentine law by holding UK-issued permits for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in the North Falkland Basin.
Milei mentioned the Sea Lion offshore oil project last week when announcing measures against companies involved in oil and gas activities in the Falkland Islands, with sanctions potentially extending to shareholders, directors and suppliers.
The Sea Lion field is operated by Tel Aviv-listed Navitas Petroleum, which has a 65 percent stake.
Gideon Tadmor, a prominent figure in Israel’s energy sector and chairman of the company, owns about 9 percent of the shares, according to LSEG data.
Milei told his country that US President Donald Trump helped bring ‘winds of change’ favorable to his Falklands claim
Milei chose to be flanked by his own cabinet, saying Argentina would use “all the instruments of the state: diplomatic, economic, judicial and legal” to hinder drilling
The islands have remained a bitter point of contention since the 1982 Argentine invasion
In his speech last week, Milei insisted that his country would ‘dominate’ and retake British territory.
Milei made a renewed claim for sovereignty and said the people of the Falklands have no right to self-determination before his national spy agency issued a sinister online warning that they are ‘watching’ the islands.
In his somber speech from the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, the incendiary leader, flanked by his cabinet, declared: “The islands are ours, by history and by law, and they were taken from us.”
Milei told his country that US President Donald Trump helped bring about a “wind of change” favorable to his Falklands claim, after the US president hinted he would not support Britain if Argentina invaded again because Sir Keir Starmer failed to back his war with Iran.
Milei, who once praised Margaret Thatcher as one of “the great leaders in human history”, said Britain is “on a path of decline”, beset by “multiple crises”, including social, economic and immigration problems.
‘The wind in the world is currently blowing in favor of our claim. President Trump announced that the US is reevaluating its historic position on the Malvinas, he said.
Milei, who is a year away from elections and a slump in the polls, said Argentina must “restore these islands” and will use “all the instruments of the state: diplomatic, economic, judicial and legal” to hinder drilling in the Sea Lion oil field, which contains 1.7 billion barrels of oil.
He made no mention of military action but announced that his government would issue an immediate emergency decree to build a naval base on Tierra del Fuego, the Argentine coastline closest to the Falklands, which has been in British hands for centuries.
“If we don’t act quickly, within a few months they will have the material capacity to access the oil that lies beneath our sea. Something that has never happened before,” he said.
‘The Falklands are our future – we must get these islands back. There is no other way forward. It is the best way to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for this cause. It is our duty as a nation to honor their memory.”
Milei’s speech came at a time when his own country is struggling with a decline in production, major job losses in manufacturing and rising household debt.
The islands have remained a bitter point of contention since the 1982 Argentine invasion, which prompted Britain to send a task force 8,000 miles to recapture them. A total of 907 people died during the conflict, including 255 British soldiers.
Defense Secretary Wes Streeting hit back by insisting the UK’s commitment to the Falklands is “absolute and unwavering”, amid ongoing concerns about the country’s ability to defend the islands as it did in 1982.
Streeting said: ‘Milei’s statement tells us more about domestic politics in Argentina overnight than it does about the Falkland Islands. The Falklands are British because Falkland Islanders choose to be British. Our commitment to the Falklands is absolute and unwavering.”
Senior minister and Burnham ally Lucy Powell said the Argentine president was “just posturing” ahead of his country’s elections.
But former Foreign Office chief Lord McDonald told the BBC that Labor should review Britain’s Falklands policy and open diplomatic talks with Argentina over the future of the islands, citing the cost of defending them and their distance from Britain.
Robert Jenrick, spokesman for the UK Treasury, said: ‘The sacrifice of our Falklands veterans is about to be betrayed. Why?
‘The Argentinians have taken one look at Burnham and Streeting and decided they are a pair of losers, too weak to defend our islands. What are they going to do? Do they flutter their eyelashes at Milei?’
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch blamed the Argentine threats on the government’s plans to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
She said: ‘Javier Milei claims to admire Margaret Thatcher, but forget this lesson: Britain does not surrender to bullies. If he wants a stronger Argentina, he must build his economy and not threaten others.
‘But there is also a lesson here for our sleepy Labor government. The madness of the surrender of the Chagos Islands means that other countries are now trying their luck. If we do not defend our own interests, whether in energy or territory, others will be happy to exploit that weakness.’
Falklands veteran Simon Weston has called on the Prime Minister to immediately “speak to Trump and reaffirm that we are not even going to discuss the sovereignty of the islands”, adding: “We have had the Chagos controversy, let’s not go down that road again.”
He accused Trump of throwing a “hissy fit” and said Milei is “not going to physically threaten the islands” because most of Argentina’s navy is “where we left it, at the bottom of the sea.”
