The Diplomat
A British ship intercepted yesterday a Spanish Navy patrol vessel during military maneuvers of the Royal Navy off the coasts of La Linea and Gibraltar and in waters whose sovereignty is claimed by Spain because they were not included in the Treaty of Utrecht.
As reported by local newspaper Europa Sur, the incident occurred after the Ceuta-based Navy patrol vessel Isla de Leon (P-83) was intercepted by HMS Cutlass while sailing towards the east coast of La Linea after crossing the Bay of Algeciras. Following the interception, the British vessel urged the Spanish vessel to leave “British jurisdictional waters” because of “military exercises”.
The Royal Navy conducted military maneuvers yesterday in the maritime area on the eastern side of the Rock. The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the waters surrounding the Rock, but Spain does not accept British claims on the grounds that the Treaty of Utrecht only ceded to Britain the city, the port and its inland waters and defenses, but not the waters. The Royal Navy had announced these maneuvers in the BGTW (British Gibraltar Territorial Waters) a few days ago, but without specifying the number or type of vessels.
The new incident with the Royal Navy is preceded by other recent events, such as the spillage of fuels into the Bay of Algeciras from the vessel Gas Venus, the action of a Gibraltar Customs patrol boat to intervene in an intervention of the Spanish Customs Surveillance Service, harassment of a fisherman from Gibraltar and a Spanish pleasure boat fishing for tuna or the visit of a British plane transporting troops and supplies to the airport of the Rock.
Also, like those, this new incident coincides with the stagnation of negotiations between the European Commission and the United Kingdom on the future relationship of Gibraltar with the European Union after Brexit, pending the formation of a government in Spain and the general elections in Gibraltar, scheduled for next October 12.
Precisely, the PP senator and mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, recalled yesterday, in statements to the ABC newspaper, that “every time there is a negotiation, the Royal Navy appears in waters that are still in dispute.” “This action comes preceded by other actions that do not help either, such as wanting to do aerobatics or the existence of a terminal for military passengers at the airport of the Rock,” he continued. “It is not the moment nor does it help the relationship between two friendly countries such as Spain and the United Kingdom. Actions like these speak very little of good neighborliness,” he added. Therefore, Landaluce urged Spain to “protest to NATO, Brussels and the highest instances” by the maneuvers of the Royal Navy and, more specifically, asked the Ministry of Defense to “also show their disagreement with these exercises, which also include fire, although they are blanks.”
For the moment it is not known whether the Spanish government will file a diplomatic complaint about this incident. At the end of August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a note verbale of protest to the United Kingdom for the aforementioned incidents registered throughout this month in the waters surrounding Gibraltar and which affected Spanish ships. In its protest, the Government reiterated that these were Spanish waters, and therefore considered that the actions of the Gibraltarian vessels represented an “unjustifiable interference” in the sovereignty of our country.
