Spain Supports Argentina’s Claim over Malvinas Islands

The Spanish Foreign Ministry, which is still controlled by the government of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, released a document Thursday saying it “shares” the calls of Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri for the United Kingdom to return the Malvinas Islands.

By supporting the newly elected right-wing government in the South American nation, Madrid also reaffirms its territorial dispute with the U.K over the sovereignty of Gibraltar, a territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula which was ceded to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713.

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“Like Argentina, Spain unequivocally hopes for purely bilateral dialogues with the United Kingdom to find a definitive solution to both issues affecting the territorial integrity of Argentina and Spain,” the document states.

Argentina’s new conservative government, which much of the right-wing press has praised as a neoliberal beacon in South America, has said that it will press on with its bid to reclaim the Malvinas Islands, a continuation of the policy of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s left-wing government.

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The position of the pro-business government in Buenos Aires is a setback to Britain's goal of developing stronger bilateral relations with Buenos Aires after the exit of Kirchner, under whom ties with London frayed.

Known to the British as the Falklands, the Malvinas Islands have been held by the U.K. since 1833, when British warships seized the archipelago. Argentina has long disputed British claims to the islands. In 1982, tensions boiled over into a short war that claimed close to 900 lives and ended with the U.K. holding on to the islands.