Roger Spink MLA said the islands were ‘reassured’ by the military presence by UK forces on the islands and said he believed the comments by Milei were for ‘domestic consumption’.
Speaking on GB News, Roger Spink said: “We're fairly relaxed. The previous government was obviously very anti The Falklands. The new president is looking for a different way forward. I don't think that means that Argentina is dropping its claim, but I think certainly, we will see and we await with interest how this changes Argentina's stance as regards the Falkland Islands.
“Argentina has real economic difficulties. They have inflation around 200%, rampant poverty amongst their people. So a lot of the time Argentine politicians use the Falklands to divert attention from the ills of their own economy and their own mismanagement of their own economy.
“We're very, very confident in the protection that we have from the British forces at Mount Pleasant. We're also very confident in the support we have from the British government. We recently had a visit by Lord Cameron to the Falklands where he reiterated the support for the people of the Falklands, and our wishes to remain British.
“So we're very confident and we also have cross party support in the Houses of Parliament. So we're very relaxed about the attitude of the Argentines. It's nothing new from our point of view, and I think we will wait and see what actions this new president actually does in the future.
“I think probably his statements were for domestic consumption.
“For the last 42 years we’ve seen the temperature go up and down as regards our relationship with Argentina. We're a very peaceful nation; we like to get on with our neighbours.
“Argentina just continues to make their unfounded claims on the Falklands and while you look across the world, people are fighting for self-determination in Ukraine, etc. Argentina is just like Russia; they tried to brainwash their people that there is this spurious claim for the Falklands.
“People here are very, very united: our referendum had almost 99% wish to remain British and I think there's no reason, although that was 10 years ago, to doubt that if we had a referendum today, the result would be very similar.
“We get regular briefings from the military and we're very reassured by the British presence at Mount Pleasant, and we think that it's at a level that is more than capable of dealing with any of the existing threats from Argentina.”
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