Falklands sovereignty not up for negotiation: UK

The UK government insisted on Monday that the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar was "not up for negotiation" after it said it would return a remote archipelago to Mauritius.

Britain announced on Thursday that it would hand back the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to former colony Mauritius but that it would maintain a key military base there.

Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino reacted by saying that Argentina would "recover full sovereignty" over the Falklands — the disputed British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.

"We celebrate this step in the right direction," Mondino said in a post on Instagram, hailing the move as a "milestone".

"Travelling the path we have begun, with concrete actions and not empty rhetoric, we are going to recover full sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands," he said, using the Argentinian name for the archipelago

When asked about Mondino's comments, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official spokesman told reporters that the return of the Chagos would have "no bearing on other overseas territories".

He said the deal with Mauritius should not be seen as a precedent for other disputes because Chagos was "a unique situation based on its unique history and circumstances".

"British sovereignty of the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar is not up for negotiation," the spokesman added.