Spain proposing Gibraltar tripartite experience for the Falklands

Tuesday, April 24th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

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Spain's current ambassador in Argentina Rafael Estrella who is identified as the driving force in the Spanish Government's decision to pursue the Cordoba tripartite dialogue process (*), is urging the Argentine Government to take a similar approach to the Falkland Islands as Spain has to the Rock.

According to the Gibraltar Chronicle the "concept has been mooted on several occasions in recent months in contacts involving Spanish, British and Argentine movers and shakers" but is reaching a peak with the commemoration in the Falklands of the 25th anniversary of the 1982 South Atlantic conflict. Ambassador Estrella last week declared in Buenos Aires that Spain unreservedly backs Argentina in its claim over the sovereignty of the Falklands, known to the Spaniards as the Malvinas. In a statement to reporters he urged that the Islands be decolonised and "rejected the use of self-determination as a resistance to dialogue with Buenos Aires". "The Malvinas is a territory that is the subject of decolonisation and which is under British administration. We have a similar situation with Gibraltar but it differs because there are closer relations in that there are over 3,000 people, presumably Gibraltarians, choosing to live in Spain and commute every day crossing the border", points out Estrella. Press reports from Gibraltar indicate that Ambassador Estrella is trying to convince the Argentines that they should pin down the British Foreign Office in a tripartite formula to increase exchanges between Buenos Aires and the Falkland Islands. "This would be on the basis that this was the methodology adopted in the case of Gibraltar and the way ahead to achieve success on the respective sovereignty claims of the two countries", argues an official statement from the Gibraltar opposition. The Gibraltar opposition also recalls that tomorrow (Wednesday) the Argentine Senate is expected to approve the naming of a new Ambassador to the United Nations, Jorge Arguello, who is the head of the country's Foreign Affairs Committee who will replace the current Ambassador Cesar Mayoral. "The new Ambassador-designate is expected to take a tougher line at the UN on the Argentine claim to the Falkland Islands. Argentine political sources indicate that he has the intention of taking the dispute to the UN General Assembly instead of limiting the debate, as at present, to the Committee of 24 and the 4th Committee. "A General Assembly resolution on the Argentine claim would involve lobbying the 192 Member countries and sources close to Mr. Arguello believe that they will be successful in getting clear support for the Argentine claim, after which they will be able to argue that world opinion is on their side. "It is against this background that the newly appointed Spanish Ambassador to Argentina Rafael Estrella has given Spain's unconditional support to Argentina's claim over the Falklands and drawn parallels between the Falklands and Gibraltar". However the Gibraltar opposition points out that the parallels drawn by ambassador Estrella between the Spanish claim to Gibraltar and the Argentine claim to the Falklands makes no mention whatsoever of the supposed validity of Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht (**). "This exposes the reality of the situation. It is clear that like Argentina in relation to the Falklands, Spain would be claiming Gibraltar with or without the Treaty of Utrecht, and it shows that the Treaty has been little more than a convenient smokescreen used both the Foreign Office and the Spanish Government to seek to insert some legitimacy into the denial or curtailment of the exercise of our right to self-determination". "Mr Estrella in Buenos Aires has no difficulty in telling the Argentines that the Falkland Islands are equally denied the exercise of their right to self-determination even though there is no treaty that provides for any reversionary clause to Argentina". The British position was recently reaffirmed by former leader of the Conservative Party and now Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague during a brief visit to the Falklands when he stated the Conservative Party commitment to the security of the Falklands while also stressing the importance attached to friendly relations with Argentina. "Support for the principle of self-determination for the Falkland Islands was", said Mr. Hague, "a non-party issue to which a future Conservative Government would be equally as committed as the present Labour administration". (*) Trilateral Forum of Dialogue on Gibraltar by which UK and Spain, with the participation of the elected government of Gibraltar agreed to several practical issues such as telecommunications, airport, port, cooperation, pensions and frontier crossing. However "the government of Gibraltar understands and accepts that references to sovereignty in the communiqué are bilateral to the UK and Spain". (**) "The Catholic King does hereby, for himself, his heirs and successors, yield to the Crown of Great Britain the full and entire propriety of the town and castle of Gibraltar, together with the port, fortifications, and forts thereunto belonging; and he gives up the said propriety to be held and enjoyed absolutely with all manner of right for ever, without any exception or impediment whatsoever". (July 13, 1713). ...And in case it shall hereafter seem meet to the Crown of Great Britain to grant , sell or by any means to alienate there from the propriety of the said town of Gibraltar, it is hereby agreed and concluded that the preference of having the sale shall always be given to the Crown of Spain before any others.

Categories: Politics, Argentina.

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