Tensions Over Gibraltar Resumed After Spanish Naval Vessel Incursion
Spain News
Published: 18 July 2014 11:59 CET
Updated: 20 December 2019 12:59 CET
The long running spat between the UK and Spain over the sovereignty of Gibraltar continued this week when a Spanish naval vessel reportedly diverted commercial ships away from the island.
On Thursday the Spanish Ambassador Federico Trillo was summoned to the Foreign Office in London after the Spanish naval ship blocked two commercial liners from entering the port of Gibraltar. Then on Friday in response, the UK ambassador Simon Manley was similarly summoned to Madrid for talks.
The Spanish vessel allegedly informed the ships that they were in Spanish waters and were subsequently refused access to the port. The ships were in fact in International waters and the actions of the Spanish ship are in breach of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas.
This has been seen by UK authorities as a cynical attempt by the Spanish government to inflict as much disruption as they can to the economy of Gibraltar.
Since the beginning of 2013, the Spanish have made over 600 incursions into the British waters surrounding Gibraltar, which is something that MP's are claiming needs to be urgently addressed.
This all follows on from a major incident in 2013 where around 70 concrete blocks were dropped into the waters around Gibraltar, a move which was claimed to act as an artificial reef for marine life. Spanish fisherman were not happy with this as they felt it prevented them from fishing in the waters.
This then resulted in the Spanish introducing stringent checks off of the island which resulted in major delays getting into and off of the island.
Although Gibraltar was ceded to the UK way back in 1713, in recent years Spanish politicians have been requesting that the island is returned to Spanish sovereignty.
