DANIEL FILMUS is Argentina’s Secretary for the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, a post he has held since 2013. We spoke when he was in Britain to give a press conference at the residence of Alicia Castro, Argentine ambassador to Britain, who joined us for the interview.

I began by asking if the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires had received any reply from John Freeman, British ambassador to Argentina since 2012, after it summoned him to answer allegations of British cyber-espionage against Argentina.

Filmus replied that no, Buenos Aires had received no reply from Freeman.

The evidence for this spying was leaked by former US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden to online magazine The Intercept. British intelligence services allegedly conducted a comprehensive campaign of electronic surveillance and disinformation against Argentina between 2006 and 2011, codenamed Operation Quito, to stop Argentina from ever restoring her sovereignty over the Malvinas. This was done with the — possibly reluctant — co-operation of the NSA.

It’s been claimed that Operation Quito was launched in response to Argentine plans to take the Falkland Islands by force.

But if all that Snowden alleges is true, Britain has some explaining to do regarding covert interference in the affairs of a sovereign nation.

Castro points out that, at almost exactly the same time as the summoning of Freeman, she was summoned by Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). There she heard many complaints, including against Argentine sanctioning of unlicensed hydrocarbon exploration in South Atlantic territories — which Argentina disputes with Britain.

She said it was either a display of British humour or a political paradox: The UN Decolonisation Committee recognises the area around the Malvinas as a disputed territory, and so requires both Britain and Argentina not to introduce any “unilateral modifications” into the disputed area. This includes exploring for oil and fishing, which Britain, Italy and the US are doing.

There are at least five oil companies prospecting in the disputed area. Three British, one Italian and one US oil company are using an oil platform owned in Norway to search for possibly billions of dollars of oil in territory Argentina claims as its own. They are doing so without permission from Buenos Aires. This puts all these companies in violation of international law, specifically UN resolution 31/49, passed on December 1 1976 with British opposition.

I ask about British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon’s updating of the Rapier missile defence system and sending Chinook helicopters to the Malvinas.

Castro points out a painting behind us, of ships in the South Atlantic, and mentions a statement from the 1740s by British admiral Lord Anson who said of the Malvinas Islands that in time of peace they can give Britain whatever she needs and that in time of war they will make Britain master of the seas.

The Malvinas have been of very long-standing strategic interest to Britain, asserts Filmus.

Both Filmus and Castro mention the recent statement of Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, that Argentina is not interested in ever going to war over the Malvinas again and so the British people could be saved the cost — £280 million and counting — of rearmament in the South Atlantic.

Such a sum could be far better spent in a Britain where a million people are eating from foodbanks and are facing cuts and austerity, Kirchner has said. Filmus reiterated that Argentina is a country of peace in a region of peace and committed to dialogue to resolve disputes, and this is gaining her much support around the world — including from the British people.

Late Argentine intellectual Ernesto Laclau spoke of a left-wing transformation in Latin America. Argentina’s politics over more than a decade is not the least example of this.

Finally, I ask what future for the Malvinas’s residents under Argentine rule? Filmus replies that they would find an Argentina and a Latin America that will embrace them, and they will live in a society with expanding services in health and education, an expanding economy and cultural opportunities.

There’s no comparison between austerity Britain and anti-neoliberal Argentina.