Thirty years after Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falklands, relations are at their chilliest in years as Buenos Aires launches a multi-pronged diplomatic offensive to assert its claim to sovereignty over the South Atlantic islands.
One demand is that Argentina wants to renegotiate a 1999 accord that allows a weekly flight to the Falklands by Chilean airline LAN, proposing that state-run Aerolineas Argentinas should fly to the remote islands, some 300 miles (480 km) off Argentina, instead.
The islanders are skeptical, saying the change would increase Argentina's control over access to the Falklands.
While a new military conflict is seen as highly unlikely, the dispute could jeopardize Britain's drive for closer economic and trade ties with emerging Latin America powers such as Brazil that it hopes will kickstart the stagnating British economy.
The discovery of oil off the Falklands has raised the stakes, leading Argentina to threaten to sue companies involved in oil exploration and to protest to the United Nations over British "militarization" of the South Atlantic.
