Britain, like Canada a staunch ally of the United States in Afghanistan, has been blindsided by Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, who has insinuated herself into a revived dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands. Ms. Clinton said the U.S. "agreed" with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner about the need for the two countries to "sit down and resolve the issues." Why Britain should be lured into such a dialogue is a mystery.
Argentina, under the erratic, leftist administration of Ms. Kirchner, and previously by her husband Nestor, has been determinedly undermining confidence in the country's economy, including in the oil and gas sector, and raising doubts about Argentina's creditworthiness. Apparently the President would now like to extend this dubious record to its neighbour, the Falkland Islands, a self-governing British overseas territory. What has piqued her interest?
It is not sheep farm profits that have revived Argentine claims over "las Malvinas" (as the Falklands are called in Argentina), or even the political imperative for the unpopular Ms. Kirchner to shore up support by stoking nationalist sentiment, but the commencement two weeks ago of oil drilling north of the Falklands by British company Desire Petroleum. It is estimated there are between 17-billion and 60-billion barrels in the area, although the commercial viability of any discovery is at question.
Fortunately, to date Ms. Kirchner has largely avoided sabre-rattling. An Argentine naval corvette was reported to have withdrawn after it encountered HMS York, a Royal Navy destroyer in the South Atlantic. Memories of the Falklands War, in which an attempt by an unpopular Argentine junta to annex and occupy the Falklands, and South Georgia, another British possession, was handily defeated by the British, appear to remain fresh. Instead, Argentina is relying on diplomatic support from South American countries, including friends like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and, Ms. Kirchner hopes, the United States.
Ms. Clinton is wrong to fall into her trap. The Falkland Islands are British, first claimed as such in the seventeenth century, and occupied since 1833. Island residents will have it no other way. Sovereignty over the islands is non-negotiable. Instead of lending legitimacy to hopeless Argentine claims by proposing to arbitrate, Ms. Clinton should pressure the country to turn its focus away from the tiny, successful Falkland Islands and onto its own sputtering economy.