President Javier Milei unveiled six new measures on Thursday night, all aimed at tightening the screws on firms and states operating near the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands.
The move is a response to the Sea Lion offshore project, led by private firms Rockhopper Exploration and Navitas Petroleum, in the waters near the British-controlled archipelago, over which Argentina claims sovereignty.
Milei's package ranges from fresh funding for a long-delayed naval base in Tierra del Fuego to the formation of a National Security Council tasked with defending Argentina's aerospace and maritime territory.
The centrepiece is an emergency presidential decree unlocking extra Defence Ministry funding for an Integrated Naval Base in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, the mainland province closest to the islands.
The project is not new: construction formally began in 2022 but has since stalled. Milei has championed the idea since visiting the site in 2024 alongside then-US Southern Command chief General Laura Richardson. The government says the base would boost telecommunications capabilities in the south.
Milei also announced a regulatory decree instructing Argentina's Foreign Ministry to compile the necessary information to pursue sanctions against companies or states found to be operating illegally in the zone.
In addition, hydrocarbon permitting procedures and access to Milei's RIGI large-investment incentive regime will now require sworn declarations, a move officials said is designed to keep out firms exploiting the Argentine Continental Shelf "without national sovereignty."
The strongest measure is a bill reforming National Law 26,659, framed by the government as a "National Sovereignty Defence law," which would seek to sanction companies linked to unauthorised operations near the islands.
The bill also includes a proposal to create a National Security Council, charged with protecting the country's aerospace and maritime territory.
"This will allow for a coordinated strategy in defending our sovereignty and national territory, and in the recovery of the Malvinas Islands," Milei said in his nationwide broadcast.
The bill would also set up a critical infrastructure protection regime and a broader aerospace and maritime protection framework, which officials said would "deepen protection against possible attacks of any kind" on Argentina's territorial integrity.
The measures follow a week of rising rhetoric over the South Atlantic archipelago, after US President Donald Trump suggested Washington could review its neutral stance on the sovereignty dispute – remarks Milei has seized on as evidence of "winds of change" in Argentina's favour on Thursday night.
Britain responded Friday by reaffirming its "unwavering commitment" to the islanders' right to self-determination.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
