Foreign Secretary David Cameron will visit the Falkland Islands this week to show they are “an important part of the British family”, the British government said on Sunday. The trip by Britain’s top diplomat comes as Argentina renews its calls for talks over the disputed South Atlantic islands.

The Foreign Office said Cameron would meet with Falkland Islands government officials to pay tribute to the war dead and visit some of the island’s 3,500 residents and one million penguins. He is the first British cabinet minister since 2016 to visit the Falkland Islands, where Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982.

Argentina’s recently elected new president, Javier Milley, has called for the islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas, to be handed over to Buenos Aires. Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the islands, which are about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from South America and about 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) from the United Kingdom.

Argentina argued that the islands were illegally seized in 1833. Britain said its claims date back to 1765 and sent a warship to the islands in 1833 to expel Argentine troops trying to establish sovereignty in the territory.

In 1982, Argentina invaded the islands, triggering a two-month war that Britain won and left 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British troops and three islanders dead. In 2013, islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory.

Cameron said: “The Falkland Islands are an important part of the British family and we are clear that as long as they want to remain part of the family, the issue of sovereignty will not be discussed.”

Cameron is also scheduled to visit Paraguay this week – the first British foreign secretary to do so – and attend a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Brazil on Wednesday before heading to the United Nations in New York to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s independence. Invasion of Ukraine.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from Yonhap News Agency-The Associated Press)