The president of Argentina has threatened legal action against the UK government unless it stops oil exploration off the Falkland Islands.
The Sea Lion oilfield project, off the coast of the islands, is a joint venture between Rockhopper Exploration and Israeli firm Navitas Petroleum, with both companies insisting they have valid licences issued by Britain.
But President Javier Milei has taken to social media to issue a two-week deadline to cease works or a legal challenge would commence.
He warned that, should the deadline not be met, he had "instructed the Foreign Ministry and legal teams to initiate international arbitration" against the UK over what he labelled "the illegal plundering of our resources through the Sea Lion Project".
If operations continue beyond the two weeks, Milei said Argentina would take the matter before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Extraction at the Sea Lion field is due to begin within two years.
The development, the BBC reports, comes on the back of Milei criticising the UN in his speech at the General Assembly for failing to act over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.
He said the UN had become "a useless organisation" only serving "arrogant parasites dressed up as well-intentioned bureaucrats".
Since then, the UK Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, said that Argentina "lacks the ability" to take back the Falklands by force.
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