UK position on Falklands will not change, No 10 says after leaked Pentagon memo | Falkland Islands

Downing Street was forced to insist that Britain would not give up its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands after a leaked email from the Pentagon suggested the US should re-evaluate its support for Britain’s claim to the islands due to the lack of British support on Iran.

The memo reflected how the Trump administration may punish Britain for failing to follow the US lead in bombing Iran and comes ahead of King Charles’ potentially worrying three-day state visit to the US.

According to Reuters, the report argued that the United States may review its policy of supporting long-standing European claims to “imperial possessions” and highlighted the Falklands, the subject of a 1982 war between Britain and Argentina.

The report prompted immediate pushback from the UK government, opposition leaders, veterans and Falkland Islanders, and highlighted a rapid decline in the tone of Anglo-American relations over the past few weeks.

Asked about the email, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We could not be clearer about the UK’s position on the Falkland Islands.” “It’s been going on for a long time. It’s not changing. Sovereignty remains with the United Kingdom and the islands’ right to self-determination is paramount.”

Although vague and with no immediate sign of acceptance, the leaked US Falklands proposal appeared deliberately designed to provoke a backlash in the UK, where memories of the war still linger.

Britain recaptured the Falkland Islands in June 1982 after 74 days of fierce conflict in which 255 members of the British armed forces, 649 Argentines and three Falkland Islanders were killed.

In the war, which started with Argentina’s invasion of the islands and it was not immediately clear that Britain would win, the USA gave covert support to the UK by providing satellite and signals intelligence and Stinger hand-held missiles.

Although there has been no return to hostilities since then, the status of the islands, 8,000 miles from Britain and 300 miles from Argentina, remains disputed by Argentina, now led by Trump ally President Javier Milei.

Argentine foreign minister Pablo Quirno responded to the reports by reiterating his country’s desire to continue bilateral negotiations for a “peaceful and definitive solution.”

Quirno expressed his gratitude for the international support for Argentina’s claims, describing the current situation of the islands, also called the Malvinas, as a “colonial situation.”

“By history, by right, and by belief: the Malvinas are Argentine,” Quirno said in a post on X.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the Falkland Islands were “British territory”, while Reform England leader Nigel Farage said he would tell Milei that the islands’ status was “non-negotiable” at a meeting planned for later this year.

Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey repeated that the king’s state visit to the US should have been canceled at the last minute. “This untrustworthy, damaging president cannot continue to insult our country,” he said.

The King and Queen Camilla will fly to Washington on Monday. The next day, Charles will make a rare speech to both houses of Congress before the couple visits the White House for a state dinner to be hosted by Trump in a highly sensitive transatlantic moment.

UK-US relations are “under more pressure today than at any time since the Second World War”, colleagues said this week. George Robertson, chairman of the international relations and defense committee, said Britain’s high military dependence on the US was “no longer tenable”.

Downing Street said on Friday it was not worried about the possibility of Trump changing his mind. “We have one of the most important, if not the closest, security and defense relationships the world has ever seen, and that continues,” Starmer’s spokesman said.

The Falkland Islands government added that it had “full confidence” in the UK’s commitment to support self-determination and cited the result of a 2013 referendum in which “99.8% of voters, with a 92% turnout”, voted to remain a British overseas territory.

Falklands veteran Simon Weston, who suffered serious burns during the conflict, said the islanders had been able to live in peace for 44 years since the war. “Just because he is [Trump] People feel slighted that he didn’t rush into the war that he created, that he started, he didn’t need to start this,” he told Times Radio.

The leaked memo is understood to have been prepared in response to the White House’s frustration that Britain and other NATO members did not provide sufficient support for the 38-day US-led bombing campaign against Iran.

The report suggested that Spain’s NATO membership should be suspended because it did not allow US warplanes to station or fly over the country during Operation Epic Rage, but it is unclear whether there are mechanisms to do this.

Although the full text of the email has not been made public, US officials have spoken to a summary of its contents. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said: “As President Trump has said, despite everything the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not on our side.

“War department [Department of Defense] We will ensure that the president has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer paper tigers but are doing their part. “We have no further comment on any internal discussions in this direction.”

Starmer has largely kept Britain out of the Iran war, but unlike other European countries he has allowed the US to fly B-1 and B-52 bombers from British bases on what are considered defensive missions against Iranian missile launchers and anything used to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

But Trump has repeatedly complained about the lack of military support Britain has provided, complaining that Britain only wants to help protect the strait after the war is over, that the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers are “toys”, and likened Starmer to Neville Chamberlain.

The public outbursts are quite different from Ronald Reagan’s behavior in 1982, when the US president publicly expressed his support for British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. “We will do our best to assist you. Best regards, Ron,” he wrote shortly after the initial invasion of Argentina.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain was a “loyal” NATO member. “The position of the Spanish government is clear: absolute cooperation with the allies, but always within the framework of international law,” the Spanish leader said.

Sánchez, one of the loudest European critics of the US and Israel’s war in Iran, angered Trump by denying US permission to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain.

He renewed his criticism on Friday. “The crisis that this illegal war has brought to the Middle East demonstrates the failure of brute force and has led to demands for respect for international law and the preservation and strengthening of multilateral order,” he said.