British Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his first face-to-face meeting with President Trump to raise the Malvinas (Falkland Islands), telling the US president directly that Britain will "stand firm" on the islands. Milei, who had spent weeks trying to secure his own sit-down with Trump during UN General Assembly week, came away with a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio instead.
Burnham's Message
Burnham and Trump met for more than 30 minutes on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Assembly in New York. "The clear position is: we will stand firm in the face of any threats. We will defend the right of the Falkland Islanders to self-determination and to remain British," Burnham told reporters afterward. "I just wanted the president to know directly from me, that's the clear British position, and he very much understood what I was saying."
Trump made no public comment on the islands. Burnham said the president had been "good enough to listen to us" on issues including trade and the islands. Trump praised Burnham as "a natural business person" but criticized Britain's deal to hand over the Chagos Islands as "a terrible deal" involving "a very important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically."
The meeting carried extra weight in Buenos Aires because Trump has been the unpredictable factor in the dispute since late August, when his remarks about reviewing Washington's neutrality prompted Milei to put the Malvinas at the center of his foreign policy. This month, Trump went further, saying in Dublin that he could personally "settle" the dispute. Burnham's decision to raise the islands in person, weeks after he vowed to be "relentless" in defending the islanders, puts London's position on the record with the man Argentina hopes will tilt toward it.
No Trump Meeting for Milei
Argentina's Foreign Ministry had worked to arrange a one-on-one between Milei and Trump in New York. No bilateral took place. Milei instead shared a "Shield of the Americas" regional security session with Trump on Tuesday, where he said Argentina wants "a proactive role in guaranteeing not only Argentine security but also hemispheric security."
Milei did meet Rubio, as Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno had confirmed before the trip, joined by Quirno and Economy Minister Luis Caputo. "Our bilateral relationship is strong, and our hemisphere is safer because of our close cooperation on energy, critical minerals, and agricultural issues," Rubio wrote on X afterward. His post did not mention the Malvinas.
Asked whether the islands came up, Quirno was noncommittal. "I will neither confirm nor deny that we talked about Malvinas," he said. In a separate interview with Uruguay's El Observador, Quirno argued that Milei's campaign had "put a certain movement in the situation that has led the United Kingdom to have to talk about the issue with President Trump," adding that Britain's strategy "historically has been to ignore the issue."
The Energy Track
The Rubio meeting came as the two governments prepared to sign a US-backed financing package worth at least $6 billion, anchored by the $51 billion Argentina LNG project, a reminder that Buenos Aires's leverage with Washington runs more through energy and minerals than through the sovereignty claim itself.