Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - The UK government Thursday stressed that the commission mulling the expansion of Argentina's maritime boundary to include waters that surround the Falkland Islands has no jurisdiction on the matter, stating it has "no doubt" over the sovereignty of the islands.
Argentina submitted a request to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf back in 2009 to expand the outer limit of its continental shelf in the South Atlantic Ocean by 660,000 square miles.
Earlier this week, the commission held its fortieth session at the UN headquarters and said it had adopted two sets of recommendations at the plenary level, without a vote, submitted as part of Argentina's request.
However, the commission stated that it had previously decided that "it was not in a position to consider and qualify those parts of the submission that were subject to dispute".
The sovereignty of the Falkland Islands has been under question for some time following the war between the UK and Argentina over the islands, known as the Malvinas in Argentina, back in 1982. The UK has held and ruled the islands since 1833.
There are several London-listed firms within the oil and gas sector that are working offshore the islands, including Premier Oil PLC, Rockhopper Exploration PLC and Argos Resources PLC.
Premier Oil and Rockhopper are working together on the Sea Lion project and have previously been threatened by the Argentine government that it would take court action against foreign companies operating in the waters. That was before the country's national elections that were held in November.
Those elections led opposition leader Mauricio Macri to become president after beating rival Daniel Scioli, who had been hand-picked by the then president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who was not allowed to run for another term by law.
On Thursday, the UK government issued its official response to the commission's report and to Argentine's intention to extend its continental shelf.
"The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has no jurisdiction over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. The UN itself has acknowledged that the [commission] could not and did not consider claims relating to the Falkland Islands within the Argentine submission," said a spokesperson from the UK Foreign Office.
"The UK government remains in no doubt over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, nor of the right of the islanders to determine their own future," the spokesperson added.
The Foreign Office also highlighted that other submissions made by Argentina concerning its boundary in Antarctica and the South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands were also not considered by the commission earlier this week for the same reasons.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
