United Kingdom Unite boss Len McCluskey gave ‘the fullest of assurances’ that he would influence a future Labor government in Britain to respect the wishes of the people of Gibraltar in any dealings with Spain.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo has renewed his bid to have Gibraltar excluded from the European Union aviation measures. According to Spanish wire reports he raised the issue in Riga during a conference of foreign ministers which was intended to focus on the crisis with Russia and Ukraine.
British territories including Gibraltar are being used by criminals and foreign officials to launder ‘corrupt’ money through the purchase of up market UK properties, according to the respected anti-corruption organization Transparency International.
The biggest ship designed exclusively for Britain, Britannia called at Gibraltar on Tuesday and is due to return for a formal inaugural call on March 17. The vessel is P&O Cruises latest “modern classic”, heralding what it calls a new era of holiday choice.
Gibraltar police and customs officers have been given additional stop and search powers inside so-called tobacco ‘special zones’. Until now, officers required reasonable suspicion of a tobacco offence before they could stop vehicles and question the occupants.
Gibraltar plays a ‘vital’ role for the US Navy’s submarine operations at a time of increased Russian naval activity, a US think tank said. The Heritage Foundation made the statement in its Index of US Military Strength 2015, a wide-ranging annual research project that assesses the ability of the United States Armed Forces.
The British and Spanish foreign ministers sought to highlight a renewed drive toward an ‘ad hoc’ dialogue on Gibraltar this week, but in doing so drew firm red lines that signaled just how difficult that task will prove. The coordinated message was positive and hinted at the possibility of talks ‘in the near future’ if a format could be agreed. But on core issues, there was no change.
With the triumph on Sunday in Greece of the Syriza anti austerity party, Spain's version, Podemos under the leadership of Pablo Iglesias, and ahead in the opinion polls for the next national election, celebrated and addressed the issue of Gibraltar saying relations between the Rock and neighboring La Línea should not fall victim to political opportunism.
Had it not been for the 1982 Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, and the war that followed, Spain would have achieved through negotiations an 'irreversible solution' to the Gibraltar dispute with Great Britain, revealed Spanish diplomat, scholar and academic Jose Cuenca in his recently launched book, “From Adolfo Suarez to Gorbachev; an ambassador's testimonies and shared secrets”.
Jorge Domecq, the senior Spanish diplomat who headed the Gibraltar desk at the Spanish Foreign Ministry including during the Tripartite Forum period, has been appointed as the next European Defense Agency Chief Executive. This comes as a result of a selection process which started last December.