There are a handful of geographical features which can potentially control the vast majority of international sea travel: Gibraltar, Suez, Panama, Mauritius and/or Diego Garcia, and the Falklands. Those five would certainly find themselves in any reputable top-ten list of most strategically important places.
At least 200 years ago, the British observed an interesting thing: if those places, and similar ones which control smaller shipping routes, are not occupied by a strong naval power, people in the vicinity immediately turn to one of the most lucrative professions there is: piracy.
If one needs a modern illustration of what happens when a place of high naval significance goes to hell, just look at Somalia. The horn of Somalia potentially controls all of the international commerce that goes through the Suez Canal. It's gone to hell and now it costs everyone an arm and a leg to police the waters there.
The only thing that prevents it from being far worse is the fact that Somalia falls within the naval influence of two of those most important places, each stocked with a powerful fleet and air forces that can project enough power to make piracy a nuisance, rather than a shipping lane killer.
So fuck a bunch of that, says the British. Especially with a FUBAR place like Argentina, which fleeces its populace every twenty years with another economic meltdown and regularly experiences political intervention from its armed forces.
If Argentina controlled the Falklands, three things would inevitably happen, probably in a hurry: 1) Argentina would start shaking down international shipping for "protection" fees, to fund their expanded naval operations; 2) Argentina's pitiful navy would be entirely focused on the shakedown, so there would be little actual protection; and 3) pirates from around the world would descend on the Argentinian coast and begin operations there, folding in perfectly with the extant corruption and illicit markets that Argentina's prior woes have already created.
That's simply not going to be allowed to happen.
= new reply since forum marked as read