A Falkland Islander has told the Express that they live in constant fear of being “traded away” in UN committee rooms, as they fight to retain their independence.
Argentina’s new President Javier Milei has committed his government to regaining sovereignty over the islands.
He told the BBC in a recent interview that he hoped to be able to achieve this through peaceful negotiations, although he acknowledged this could take many years.
However, the Falkland Islanders have absolutely no intention of giving up their hard-won sovereignty.
Teslyn Barkman is a member of the Falklands Legislative Assembly (MLA), which is made up of just eight members.
She told the Express that the Falklanders had a right to exist as an independent country and had much to contribute globally both economically and culturally.
“You can’t remove the right of self-determination from people because it doesn’t suit your political agenda,” she said.
“We’ve been here longer than Argentina has been a country in its current form, and we’re not going to go back in time just to appease others.
“Our people are proud and have developed a culture that’s incredibly unique and actually has a lot to contribute to a global conversation about small countries developing, particularly in the face of climate change and other global threats.”
The Falkland Islands are booming economically, and boast a world-leading fishery industry that brings in around £31 million a year.
At the same time, the Islanders are set to earn billions of pounds from the Sea Lion oilfield that potentially contains over 300 million barrels.
Ms Barkman said the oil discovery would create a lot of new opportunities for UK businesses, and that around £750 million would go directly to British companies during the first two phases of development, as well as creating over a thousand jobs.
However, Argentina will not be one of the countries benefiting from the oil bonanza, due to its own political stance towards the Islands.
“Argentina has created a list of illegal economic sanctions and a bunch of domestic laws that target businesses that operate in the Falklands,” she explained.
“So, by their own doing, I suppose, they restrict businesses from investing here because they don’t recognise our people as existing, which, as you can imagine, is rather a confusing state of affairs.”
Argentina’s stance is part of a campaign of pressure consecutive governments have tried to apply on the islanders to isolate them and break their will to exist.
Buenos Aires is trying to diplomatically ostracise the Falkland Islanders and prevent them from taking part in any political discussion about their future.
One international forum where the future of the Falklands is discussed is the UN’s C24 decolonisation committee. Argentina has tried to bar the Falkland Islands government from attending these discussions, much to the frustration and anger of the islanders.
“We also deal with the psychological threat that they’re trying to trade us away in a committee somewhere in the UN at different times,” she said.
“You know how helpless you feel if you’re not part of that conversation. So we attend the UN’s C24 decolonisation committee every year to make an appeal to be part of any conversation.
“The (Argentinian) team has been very, very resolute to try and keep us outside of the conversation, to keep us away from the international community, because they know it delegitimises everything that they’ve been trying to do to our country. It’s very heartbreaking.”
Ms Barkman praised the UK cross-party support for the islands since the war in 1982, saying it has been “incredibly strong”. The island’s government has ongoing discussions with the UK about its political and economic future.
“We always need to have those conversations, because we are a small number of people and I think sometimes it does surprise people that we do things as well as we do. We’re very proud of that,” she said.