**Argentina is seeking United Nations support in its new row with the UK over oil drilling off the Falkland Islands.**Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana is set to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to call for his help in opening talks on the islands’ sovereignty.
The British government says the islands have a “legitimate right” to develop an oil industry within their waters.
Argentina and the UK went to war over the islands in 1982, after Buenos Aires invaded them.
The current Argentine government has ruled out any military action over the islands, which it calls Las Malvinas, but is stepping up its diplomatic offensive to try to pressure Britain into negotiations.
Buenos Aires says the UK has broken a UN resolution forbidding unilateral development in disputed waters.
Mr Taiana is expected to urge the UN secretary general to use his position to press the UK to begin talks.
A summit of Latin American and Caribbean nations ended in Mexico on Tuesday with a statement reaffirming “backing for Argentina’s legitimate rights in its sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom relating to the ‘Malvinas Question’”.
The statement also urged the two governments to “renew negotiations in order to find in the shortest time possible a just, peaceful and definitive solution to the dispute”.
Explanation
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged the UN to debate Argentina’s claim to sovereignty.
“What is the geographic, the political or economic explanation for England [sic] to be in Las Malvinas” he asked.
“Could it be because England is a permanent member of the UN’s Security Council [where] they can do everything and the others nothing”
The British-contracted rig Ocean Guardian began drilling 100km (62 miles) north of the Falklands on Monday.
The drilling operation in the disputed waters off the Falkland Islands could yield millions of barrels of oil and the British government says it will take all necessary measures to protect the archipelago.
UK forces wrested back control of the Falkland Islands, held by Britain since 1833, after a seven-week war that killed 649 Argentine and 255 British service personnel.
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