UK and Argentina clash over Falklands oil project as Hamburg tribunal starts

Argentina’s president Javier Milei says the project is unlawful. Photograph: Yara Nardi/ReutersView image in fullscreenArgentina’s president Javier Milei says the project is unlawful.

Fotografia: Yara Nardi/Reuters Ilhas Malvinas: Reino Unido e Argentina entram em conflito sobre projeto petrolífero nas Malvinas enquanto tribunal de Hamburgo inicia o projeto Sea Lion na bacia norte das Malvinas, ameaçando aprofundar a disputa de soberania.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleArgentina has told an international tribunal that Britain’s approval of oil drilling off the Falkland Islands has dramatically deepened a sovereignty dispute that led to war four decades ago.

At the start of an historic legal clash at the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos), an Argentinian legal team argued that the oil project must be suspended.

Javier Oyarzábal, chief legal adviser to Argentina’s ministry of foreign affairs, said that the 3,400 inhabitants of the Falkland Islands, whose status as a British overseas territory is disputed by Buenos Aires, had no right to the resources around the south Atlantic archipelago.

Oyarzábal said: “[Argentina] respects the interests of the inhabitants of the islands and their way of life as enshrined in the Argentine constitution … What these British citizens do not have is a right to decide to which state the islands belong.

Oyarzábal disse que a Argentina estava pronta para negociar “todos os aspectos da questão” das Ilhas Falkland, que são conhecidas como Malvinas na Argentina, “incluindo a atual agravação da disputa causada pelo Reino Unido”.

He accused the UK of refusing to enter talks over the islands while pushing forward on the exploitation of its natural resources in a way that would entrench the status quo.

Oyarzábal claimed that the oil money from the drilling would “finance the very military base and presence that sustains the UK’s de facto control of the territory”.

Addressing the panel’s chair, Judge Maurice Kamga, from Cameroon, he added: “Mr President, the UK cannot have it both ways. It cannot invoke the sovereignty dispute to escape jurisdiction [of Itlos] while exploiting the natural resources of the disputed area as if a dispute had already been resolved in its favour.”.

O projeto Sea Lion no bacia do Norte das Ilhas Falkland, liderado pela empresa israelense Navitas e seu parceiro britânico, Rockhopper, tem potencial para triplicar o PIB per capita das ilhas.

It has been condemned as unlawful by Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, and his government has applied for arbitration by Itlos over the future of the project, claiming Britain’s approval of is in breach of a 1976 UN resolution calling on both parties to desist from unilateral action on the islands until the sovereignty dispute is settled.

Argentina está solicitando medidas provisórias urgentes, incluindo um compromisso do Reino Unido em “parar a perfuração”, que, disse Oyarzábal, não faria mais do que “preservar a situação atual” e permitiria o início de conversas construtivas sobre a soberania.

At the start of the two-day hearing, the tribunal’s panel was told that a decision by the UK government to allow drilling to start in March next year was the “unilateral conduct” of a “colonial power”.

Foi ainda alegado pela Argentina que o projeto petrolífero Sea Lion representava risco de desastre ambiental na porta de entrada da Argentina e que isso tornaria a disputa de soberania sobre as ilhas “more difficult or impossible” de ser resolvida pacificamente.

He added: “In the event of a blowout or spill, it is Argentina that would bear its consequences and be called upon to respond, not a state that is 12,700km away.

More over the project lies within the search and rescue region for which Argentina is responsible”.

A disputa de longa data entre Argentina e o UK sobre a soberania das Ilhas Falkland levou à guerra em 1982, custando a vida de 649 militares argentinos, 255 militares britânicos e três habitantes das Ilhas Falkland.

The hearing is the first time that substantive matters relating to the Falklands have been litigated at an international tribunal.

The oil project is seen on the islands as offering the opportunity to secure their economic future, and build a sovereign wealth fund, at a time when fisheries catches on which they depend are declining.

In a show of solidarity, Princess Anne arrived in Port Stanley on Monday. Ellie Reeves, the UK’s attorney general, attended the Itlos hearing on Tuesday.

She claimed that Argentina was seeking to litigate the issue of sovereignty through Itlos, an independent judicial body established by the 1982 United Nations convention on the law of the sea to oversee maritime disputes.

Ela disse: “Não achamos que este seja o fórum para determinar efetivamente questões de soberania.”.

Quando questionado se o Reino Unido obedeceria a qualquer decisão, Reeves disse: “Não sabemos o que vai acontecer em termos do resultado, mas não consideramos que eles tenham jurisdição sobre questões de soberania.”.

We respect the court and the institutions … but I don’t want to get ahead of what the tribunal may or may not say.” The hearing continues.

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• Ntina that would bear its consequences and be called upon to respond, not a state that is 12,700km away