Rishi Sunak has criticised the EU for its “regrettable choice of words” after it appeared to endorse the name that Argentina uses for the Falklands.
Downing Street was reacting after EU leaders attending a summit in Brussels supported an Argentinian-backed declaration that used the name Islas Malvinas alongside Falkland Islands.
UK diplomats have been asking the EU to “clarify” its position while Buenos Aires hailed a “diplomatic triumph” after the declaration was agreed at a meeting of EU leaders with counterparts from the Celac bloc of Latin America and the Caribbean on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the European External Action Service – the EU’s diplomatic service – subsequently said the bloc had not changed its views on the disputed archipelago as there had been no mandate from the council of member states.
Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “The prime minister’s view is that it would have been entirely unacceptable for the EU to question the Falkland islanders’ right to decide their own future.
“To be clear, the Falkland Islands are British, that was the choice of the islanders themselves. The EU has rightly now clarified that their position on the Falklands has not changed after their regrettable choice of words.”
The spokesperson added that 99.8% of islanders who took part in a 2013 referendum had voted to retain the Falklands’ status as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom.
Part of the declaration of the EU-Celac summit stated: “Regarding the question of sovereignty over the Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands, the European Union took note of Celac’s historical position based on the importance of dialogue and respect for international law in the peaceful solution of disputes.”
Santiago Cafiero, Argentina’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday that his government hoped to “further expand dialogue” with the EU on the question of the islands “off the back of this declaration”.
He added: “This joint declaration constitutes a further call from the international community for the UK to agree to meet its obligation to resume sovereignty negotiations with Argentina.”
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, had asked the EU to keep the Falklands out of the declaration, the Financial Times reported.
UK government sources on Thursday pointed out that coverage in the Argentinian media had noted that the EU had insisted its position on the Falklands had not changed.
On Twitter, Cafiero criticised the coverage in his country’s largest selling newspaper, Clarín, describing it as a lie and insisting that Argentinian diplomacy had achieved a “forceful” triumph which incorporated the issue into a bi-regional declaration.