The HMS Medway (P223) offshore patrol vessel seen at Portsmouth Naval Base near Portsmouth, UK. The Medway recently sailed through the Strait of Magellan, near Argentine waters, although there is no evidence that it actually entered them. (Wikimedia Commons/Oscar Taylor)

Argentina Incensed After UK Deploys Ship to South America

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Argentina claimed that the Royal Navy patrol vessel had passed through its waters on the way to Chile, though the UK has disputed this.

In a much-anticipated and politically-charged matchup, England lost to Argentina on the soccer pitch earlier this week during the World Cup—the latest showdown in a rivalry that goes back decades and remains one of the most hostile in the sport.

However, a bigger and far more significant controversy is brewing between London and Buenos Aires. Just hours after Argentina won in the World Cup semi-final matchup, one of its top officials accused the UK of sending a warship to its sovereign waters.

Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno claimed the Royal Navy’s Batch 2 River-class patrol vessel HMS Medway (P223) was conducting a “military incursion” into Argentine waters earlier in the month without formally notifying the government of the planned deployment. 

The lightly armed vessel has been permanently deployed as the Falklands Island guard ship since January of this year, taking over from HMS Forth (P222), another River-class OPV. (In Argentina’s telling, “Argentine waters” includes the waters around the British-controlled Falkland Islands; the UK disagrees.)

The British government has claimed in response that HMS Medway was underway on a “routine logistics visit to Chile.”

“The facts here are that we have notified the Argentinian government in advance of HMS Medway taking a routine logistics visit to Chile between 5 and 8 July to support British Antarctic survey operations which........

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