Boris Johnson compares Ukraine conflict to Falklands war in dig at Argentina
- PM said he was ‘disappointed’ issue was raised as he met Argentinian president
- He met Alberto Fernandez on Monday at G7 summit on response to Russia’s war
- PM said sacrifice of lives ‘vindicated’ Falklanders’ right to choose their future
- Reportedly Mr Fernandez responded ‘we have a problem’ that will halt progress
Boris Johnson compared the fight to liberate the Falkland Islands 40 years ago to the war in Ukraine in a ‘frank’ discussion with Argentina’s president.
The Prime Minister said yesterday he was ‘disappointed’ the issue had been raised as he met Alberto Fernandez on Monday at a G7 summit focused on how to respond to Russia’s invasion.
Quizzed about the row as he flew to Madrid for a Nato summit yesterday, Mr Johnson said: ‘I made the point that we were spending a lot of our time talking about Ukraine where the principle at stake was the right of sovereign independent people to determine their future.’
‘I just said that it had been 40 years ago since the UK had, at a cost of the sacrifice of many lives, vindicated the principle that the Falkland Islanders should have the right to determine their future under basic democratic principles and had the right to be British,’ Boris Johnson (right) told Argentinian president Alberto Fernandez (left) at the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, in the Bavarian Alps, Germany on Monday
The PM added: ‘I would say it was frank, it was free but it seemed to me to be friendly.
‘I just said that it had been 40 years ago since the UK had, at a cost of the sacrifice of many lives, vindicated the principle that the Falkland Islanders should have the right to determine their future under basic democratic principles and had the right to be British.
‘That, as far as I was concerned, was the end of the matter.’
According to the Buenos Aires Times, Mr Fernandez told the PM: ‘We have a problem, until we solve it we will not be able to make progress on anything.’