article_snippet.sent: Argentina has branded British attempts to explore the seas around the Falklands Islands for oil
article_snippet.sent: and says it will mount a legal challenge – but has ruled out another conflict.
article_snippet.sent: Daniel Filmus, Argentina’s secretary of state for the Falklands Islands, told an event in London that Britain’s decision to increase military spending in the South Atlantic was ‘gunboat diplomacy’.
article_snippet.sent: ‘The United Kingdom can count on Argentina as an ally.
article_snippet.sent: Argentina has branded British attempts to explore the seas around the Falklands Islands the Falklands Islands for oil
article_snippet.sent: But Mr Filmus added: ‘The unilateral and illegitimate appropriation of non-renewable natural resources that is being carried out by the UK in the South Atlantic has been the subject of continued protest by the Argentine Republic.
article_snippet.sent: Argentina has been forced to resort to defensive measures,’ Mr Filmus said, using ‘the law and political action as Argentina main tools in order to protect the natural resources in the area under dispute’.
article_snippet.sent: Mr Filmus said Argentinian judicial authorities would consider the case against British companies involved in the oil exploration.
article_snippet.sent: Addressing the question of possible future conflict, Mr Filmus said: ‘Argentina bears no grudge against the inhabitants of the Falklands Islands in spite of all the manoeuvres designed to prove otherwise. '
article_snippet.sent: What Argentina is not going to do is give in.
article_snippet.sent: It is an outrageous piece of bullying and threatening against the Falkland islanders
article_snippet.sent: ’ perfect right to develop their own economic resources and Argentina needs to stop this kind of behaviour and start acting like a responsible member of the international community.
article_snippet.sent: Britain defeated Argentina in a 1982 war over the South Atlantic islands and administers the South Atlantic islands as an overseas territory, whose population of around 3,000 voted overwhelmingly to remain under British rule in a referendum in 2013.
article_snippet.sent: Argentina says Argentina is the rightful owner of the South Atlantic islands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, a claim dating back centuries to the Spanish colonial era.
highlights_snippet.sent: Argentina claims British exploration around Falklands for oil is ‘illegitimate’
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Argentina says Argentina will mount a legal challenge but has ruled out a conflict .
  