Foreign Policy in Focus
The British firm Rockhopper Exploration was the first company to obtain oil off the coast of the Falkland Islands in 2010. Since then, these oil deposits have raised the stakes of the historical territorial dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina over these islands located in the South Atlantic Ocean. A recent report by the pro-military think tank, the United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA), attempts to prove, albeit unconvincingly, that China could conceivably play a leading role in the future of this dispute. The document states that “by 2020 Falklands oil will most likely be coming on stream and Argentina, perhaps in concert with her new friend, the Peoples’ [sic] Republic of China, may well be looking with jealous eyes on this potential source of easy energy. Our assessment is that current force levels are inadequate to hold off even a small-size invasion.”
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