Argentine President Javier Milei on Monday threatened to take legal action if the United Kingdom fails to stop its illegal Sea Lion Project within two weeks, which is being carried out near the North Falklands Basin.

The Sea Lion is an offshore oilfield being developed by Israel’s Navitas Petroleum and England’s Rockhopper Exploration.

In a post on X, Mr Milei said he directed Argentina’s foreign ministry and legal teams to initiate arbitration proceedings at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a Hamburg-based maritime court in Germany.

Mr Milei wrote, “I instructed the Foreign Ministry and our legal teams to initiate arbitration proceedings against the United Kingdom for the illegal sacking of our resources through the Sea Lion Project in the North Falklands Basin.

“If within two weeks the United Kingdom does not stop the illegitimate exploitation, we will go to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The Malvinas are Argentine, and they are defended with facts, not words.”

Mr Milei insisted that the UK’s oil exploration in the Falklands contravened a United Nations resolution that asked both countries to halt all actions while the dispute remains unresolved.

He earlier threatened to bar companies also carrying out illegal oil exploration at the Islands from operating in the country’s oil and mining sectors.

While about 60 companies and executives are currently being investigated for illegal resource exploration at the Islands, Mr Milei’s government sent a bill to the country’s congress, proposing up to a 20-year jail term for anyone found extracting resources at the location without Argentina’s approval.