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The United Kingdom should seek a negotiated solution to its decades-old territorial dispute with Argentina, British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said Sunday.
“There has to be a discussion about how you can bring about some reasonable accommodation with Argentina,” Corbyn said during a BBC interview.
The comment was made after the Labour leader was asked during a BBC interview to clarify his position on the U.K.'s simmering dispute with Argentina over the Malvinas Islands, which have been administered by the U.K. since the 19th Century.
The territorial dispute has long been a sticking point in relations between Argentina and the U.K., a situation Corbyn said shouldn't continue.
He told the BBC, “It seems to me ridiculous that in the 21st Century we'd be getting into some enormous conflict with Argentina about the islands just off (its coast).”
Corbyn also noted the British residents of the islands should have an “enormous say” in any future negotiations.
“They've got a right to stay where they are. They've got a right to decide on their own future, and that will be part of it,” he said.
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. Since the war, both Argentina and the U.K. have been called on by the United Nations to reach a negotiated solution to the tense dispute.
While Argentina has backed U.N. talks on the islands, the U.K. has opposed international negotiations.
SPECIAL: Malvinas – A Colonial Enclave in the South Atlantic
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