<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The British Navy has announced new military exercises off the coast of the Rock of Gibraltar, in waters whose sovereignty is claimed by Spain under the Treaty of Utrecht. These are the second Royal Navy exercises off the Rock's coast so far this March, and on the first occasion, the Foreign Office made a "formal protest" to the United Kingdom.</strong></h4> According to the Gibraltar Port Authority, the Gibraltar Defence Police (GDP) patrol vessel HMS Dagger and the inflatable boats Arctic 24 and Pacific 24 will conduct a navigation trial, known as Box Surfex, between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. According to the Royal Navy, both the patrol vessel and the speedboats will sail "at a safe distance" from other vessels in the area and within a delimited area east of the Rock. In early March, the Royal Navy conducted further military exercises off the Rock's coast, coordinated by the Royal Navy's Gibraltar Squadron and involving the Royal Gibraltar Police, the Ministry of Defence Police in Gibraltar, and the Customs Service. At the time, the Gibraltar government reported that "planning was already underway for the next exercises, in which units will conduct more complex series of exercises with the Royal Navy's Gibraltar Squadron and the Defence Police." Following the exercises earlier this month, the Foreign Office lodged a "formal protest" with the United Kingdom, as "it always does when these types of exercises occur," and requested that London "take appropriate measures to ensure that such actions are not repeated," according to sources from the Department who spoke to The Diplomat. Furthermore, the Ministry reiterated that "Spain's position regarding the spaces ceded and not ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 remains unchanged, and that Spain does not recognize any rights or situations for the United Kingdom relating to the maritime spaces of Gibraltar other than those included in Article X of the aforementioned Treaty of Utrecht." Both Spain and the United Kingdom maintain that the waters surrounding the Rock are under their sovereignty. London considers that British sovereignty encompasses the entire territory of Gibraltar, including the "British territorial waters of Gibraltar," and therefore denies that the waters surrounding the Rock are Spanish. For its part, Madrid has repeatedly asserted that, under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Spain ceded only the city, port, defenses, and waters of the port of Gibraltar, but not the waters surrounding the Rock (nor the isthmus, which was illegally occupied by the British in the 19th century and on which the colony's airport is located). Therefore, it considers these waters to remain under Spanish sovereignty. This discrepancy has resulted in frequent incidents between vessels of the two countries and in reciprocal verbal notes of protest.
