The Falkland Islands Government, FIG, has congratulated Gibraltar minister Joe Bossano on being awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for 2018. In a statement in which it described Sir Joe as a “long-standing friend of the Falkland Islands”, FIG said he has spoken vociferously in support of Falkland Islander’s right to self-determination at various international forums.
Gibraltar will not be excluded from any aspect of the UK’s Brexit negotiations, Prime Minister Theresa May insisted again, after the European Commission appeared to indicate that Spain would have a veto on any transitional arrangements covering the Rock.
Gibraltar will recall on December 15th the 35th Anniversary of the Opening of the Frontier. The decision to end the thirteen year blockade of Gibraltar to strangle its economy taken by the Spanish Dictator General Franco in 1969, was put into effect by the PSOE.
Gibraltar’s presence in an increasingly interconnected world means it will not be isolated as a result of Brexit, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said on Spanish television, even as he described the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union as “madness”.
Monarch Airlines has ceased trading and all of its future bookings have been cancelled, the UK's Civil Aviation Authority has said. Around 110,000 Monarch customers are currently overseas and the UK government has asked the CAA to charter aircraft to bring them back to the UK.
Britain’s commitment to upholding Gibraltar’s British sovereignty and its right to self determination is as “immoveable as the Pillars of Hercules themselves”, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Sunday night at the Gibraltar reception on the sidelines of the Conservative party conference in Manchester.
The Royal Gibraltar Regiment recently deployed one of its officers to Santiago in Chile. Major Timothy Cumming deployed from July 12/August 2 to Santiago to assist in the delivery of some critical Pre-Deployment Training (PDT). This training was delivered to members of the Chilean Armed Forces that were going to make up the latest United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) contingent.
Spain has repeated its traditional position on Gibraltar during an address to the UN General Assembly in New York, describing the Rock as “an anachronism” and highlighting Madrid’s co-sovereignty proposal. Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis focused on Gibraltar briefly during a 17-minute speech that covered key areas of Spanish foreign policy.
Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alfonso Dastis, sought to reassure cross-border workers during a visit to La Linea, insisting Madrid would work to minimize the impact of Brexit on Spanish citizens, “and very especially those from the Campo and La Linea” who cross every day to Gibraltar.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said the United Kingdom will stand by Gibraltar for as long as Gibraltarians wish to remain British, reaffirming the double lock sovereignty commitment as the Rock celebrated a historic National Day.