United Kingdom Foreign Minister David Cameron’s meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei in Davos on Wednesday was “warm and cordial” and served to lay the groundwork for a “more constructive relationship” between the United Kingdom and Argentina, a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said.
The former Conservative prime minister, now Foreign Secretary, and the newly inaugurated Argentine president met in the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos.
“The Foreign Secretary and President Milei discussed how to enhance UK-Argentina relations through greater cooperation on areas of mutual interest including trade, education, culture and enhancing people-to-people links,” the spokesperson added.
The main point of contention between the two countries is the dispute over a group of small islands off the southern tip of South America, which Britain administers as the Falkland Islands and Argentina claims sovereignty over as the Islas Malvinas.
Cameron and Milei said they would “agree to disagree and do so politely,” according to the Foreign Office.
“The UK position and ongoing support for the Falkland Islanders’ right to self-determination remains unchanged,” the spokesman said.
London and Buenos Aires clashed in a short war over the South Atlantic islands in 1982 after the Argentine military junta seized them by force on April 2 that year, but the conflict ended only a couple of months later with a British victory.
The United Nations considers the islands to be a non-self-governing territory that is under the supervision of its Special Committee on Decolonization.
Milei has previously argued that the UK should adopt a similar approach to the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
By Nadeem Faisal Baiga
