ARGENTINIAN President Alberto Fernandez has accused Boris Johnson of contempt for international law regarding statements he made over the Falkland Islands. 

Mr Fernandez raised the issue of his country’s longstanding claim over the islands, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas during a brief meeting at the G7 summit of world leaders in Germany. 

Mr Johnson compared the situation with that of Ukraine and said that the islanders had exercised the right to self-determination and that the matter had been decisively settled 40-years ago. 

But his response drew the ire of Argentina’s secretary for Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona. 

He pointed out that Britain had occupied the islands in 1833 and forcibly expelled its Argentine inhabitants.

More recently, it had ignored 10 UN resolutions calling for a negotiated settlement to the disputed territories, the diplomat said. 

Mr Carmona said that by making reference to the 1983 war, the British PM was effectively stating that barbarism and aggression are a legitimate part of international law, unless of course they are committed by Russia.

In addition, the principle of self-determination has been rejected by Mr Johnson in Donetsk and Crimea, not to mention the Chagos Islands, so to invoke it in the case of the Malvinas is nothing more than hypocrisy, he added.  

Sovereignty over the islands, which lie around 300 miles off the Argentinian coast, has never been conceded by Buenos Aires.

The Argentinian government insists that the natural resources around the islands, including large oil reserves discovered in 1998, “belong to 14 million Argentinians.” 

Britain is accused of constantly ignoring UN resolutions which call for renewed negotiations over sovereignty, with its military presence there branded illegitimate.