Buenos Aires, 20 oct (Prensa Latina) El Tribunal de los Derechos del Mar fijó hoy las fechas para tratar el reclamo de Argentina contra la explotación petrolera en los mares de las Islas Malvinas, demanda que hasta ahora el Reino Unido ignora.
The post Londres ignora, hasta ahora, al Tribunal del Mar sobre caso Malvinas first appeared on Noticias Prensa Latina.
The vote took place in the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly. The measure, presented by the Russian Federation, sought to ratify and reinforce the goals of Resolution 1514, the landmark text approved in 1960 that declared colonialism incompatible with the UN Charter and fundamental human rights.
Argentina’s diplomatic delegation chose to stand aside rather than endorse the initiative. The move placed the Milei government in line with the position promoted by the White House, which pressed allied governments to abstain.
RELATED: Argentine President Milei Toughens Malvinas Claim at UNGA
The resolution passed anyway. Delegates recorded 85 votes in favor, 49 against and 23 abstentions, sending the text to the full General Assembly for consideration.
The alignment extended beyond Buenos Aires and Washington. Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and Paraguay joined the abstention, a bloc of right-leaning regional governments that followed the U.S. lead.
On the other side, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India voted in favor. Their support reaffirmed the global backing for territorial integrity and decolonization processes, and set up a sharp divide within Latin America itself.
The Russian draft went further than the 1960 declaration. It extended the concept of colonialism to cover unilateral coercive measures and the economic and financial sanctions promoted by Washington around the world, a provision that made the vote a direct test of alignment.
The UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee approved the draft resolution “Addressing contemporary forms of colonialism” by 85 votes in favour, 49 against, with 23 abstentions. Sponsored by Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Palestine and others, it recognizes colonialism in… pic.twitter.com/MqgQfoMhME
— Digital Debate (@digdebate) October 16, 2026
The abstention collides with the rhetoric Milei has used on Malvinas, the archipelago occupied by Britain since 1833. His government has campaigned publicly for the defense of sovereignty and demanded sanctions against oil companies operating on that Argentine soil.
The contrast sharpened in September, when the Argentine President addressed the General Assembly. There he read extended passages demanding the eradication of colonialism and stated plainly that the principle of self-determination “exists to liberate colonized peoples, not to enshrine situations derived from colonization.”
Those words sit uneasily with the vote his own diplomats just cast, or chose not to cast. The abstention, in effect, withheld support from a document that echoes the very argument Milei delivered from the rostrum.
The domestic reaction was immediate. Carlos Bianco, the government minister for Buenos Aires province, called the abstention an irresponsible act against a historic national cause. “The Malvinas question deserves a diplomacy that does not kneel. Abstaining in the face of colonialism is not just an embarrassment, it constitutes an act of irresponsibility. The Malvinas question must once again be defined by Argentines. And it will be,” Bianco wrote on social media.
The episode exposes a tension running through the Milei administration’s foreign policy. It has embraced Washington as its principal ally while maintaining, at least in public speeches, a sovereignty claim that Washington’s abstention strategy directly undercuts.
Milei dice que quiere recuperar Malvinas. En la ONU, la Argentina se abstuvo de votar contra el colonialismo.
— Francisco Cafiero (@FranCafiero) October 16, 2026
Hace dos semanas, esa misma delegación decía que Malvinas es una situación colonial.
Sobran las contradicciones. No tienen política exterior propia y desprecian al país… pic.twitter.com/I5cYaXCbvp
Text reads: “Milei says he wants to take back Malvinas. At the UN, Argentina abstained from voting against colonialism. Two weeks ago, that same delegation said that Malvinas are a colonial situation. The contradictions abound. They have no foreign policy of their own and despise the country they govern.”
Argentina’s historic position on Malvinas has long drawn broad support across Latin America and the developing world, precisely the coalition that voted in favor of the resolution Buenos Aires declined to endorse.
The measure now moves to the plenary, where the same fault lines are likely to reappear. What Argentina does there will reveal whether the abstention was an isolated calculation or a settled posture. For now, the vote leaves a record that is hard to reconcile: a government that speaks of liberating colonized peoples, yet declines to vote for a resolution doing exactly that.
On Tuesday, Argentina asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to order measures against the project led by Israeli oil company Navitas in the Malvinas Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom and claimed by the South American country.
RELATED:
Argentine President Milei Toughens Malvinas Claim at UNGA
“The Argentine Republic today submitted a request for provisional measures to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to prevent the United Kingdom from exploiting hydrocarbons on the continental shelf of the North Malvinas Basin,” the Argentine presidency posted on social media.
“The request submitted to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea seeks to preserve Argentina’s sovereign rights over its continental shelf and prevent activities unilaterally and illegally authorized by the United Kingdom from aggravating the dispute recognized by the United Nations.”
“The Argentine Republic reaffirms, once again, its legitimate and imprescriptible sovereign rights over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime areas. By history and by law: the Malvinas Islands are Argentine,” the presidential statement concluded.
UK WARNS ARGENTINA it will use ‘FORCE’ to DEFEND FALKLANDS (Malvinas) ‘IF NECESSARY’
— RT (@RT_com) September 26, 2026
Says Britain has ‘ABILITY’ to defend Islands ‘BY FORCE’
‘The Argentinians LACK ABILITY to TAKE Falkland Islands’ pic.twitter.com/q4geEzxkzD
On Sept. 28, Argentine President Javier Milei announced that he would initiate a request for arbitration based on the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a 1982 treaty whose dispute-resolution body is the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, based in Hamburg, Germany.
Argentina’s goal is to halt the progress of Sea Lion, an offshore project operated by Navitas (65%) and British company Rockhopper (35%) to begin extracting crude oil in 2028 in the North Malvinas Basin, 200 kilometers north of the archipelago.
Argentina considers the permits granted to the oil companies by the islands’ local government “illegal.” When announcing that it would initiate the request for international arbitration, Argentina gave the United Kingdom two weeks to take measures to stop the project.
One day later, British Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the Overseas Territories Uma Kumaran responded that Argentina’s arbitration effort was the South American country’s “latest attempt” to “undermine the rights of the people” of the Malvinas Islands, which have been occupied by the UK since 1833, when British forces expelled Argentine authorities from the islands.
According to Kumaran, hydrocarbon activities in the Malvinas Islands are regulated by the islands’ laws and “are conducted in full compliance with international law, including UNCLOS.”
MARINES ESTADOUNIDENSES REALIZARON EN USHUAIA EJERCICIOS CON TROPAS ARGENTINAS
— AgendaMalvinasOK (@Agenda_Malvinas) August 27, 2025
🚩https://t.co/3EOcbmaW1T
Solo un gobierno que desprecia la lucha de su pueblo y a los muertos por la Patria en 1982, permite el ingreso de militares del principal socio del usurpador de Malvinas. pic.twitter.com/H6Cf3PbKJG
The text reads, “U.S. Marines conducted exercises with Argentine troops in Ushuaia. Only a government that disdains its people’s struggle and those who died for the Fatherland in 1982 would allow the entry of military personnel from the principal partner of the usurper of the Malvinas.”
Argentina’s Foreign Ministry denied that it was seeking to “undermine” anyone’s rights, arguing instead that submitting a dispute to an international tribunal is an act of responsibility because differences are not resolved through unilateral actions, “but before judges who apply the law that both parties have freely accepted.”
The United Kingdom and Argentina, which fought a war over the Malvinas Islands in 1982, are both parties to UNCLOS.
Since Milei announced a series of measures on Aug. 3 aimed at curbing oil activity in the Malvinas Islands, Argentina has initiated administrative proceedings and filed lawsuits in domestic courts against the companies operating on the islands and their shareholders.
It has also sent dozens of letters to oil companies around the world seeking to dissuade them from operating in the archipelago or supplying the projects there.
So far, Argentina has succeeded in getting some global oil services companies with significant business interests in the South American country to publicly state that they will not operate in the Malvinas Islands, including contractors that were set to take part in the Sea Lion project.
Last week, Navitas and Rockhopper, whose shares have fallen in recent weeks, said they would replace two contractors and continue moving forward with Sea Lion “with the full support” of the Malvinas Islands and British governments.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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