Ad hoc’ talks do not mean four sides: that was the swift and firm declaration from the Government of Gibraltar in response to statements made to the Gibraltar Chronicle by Gonzalo de Benito, Spain’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
Lieutenant-General Sir James Benjamin Dutton KCB CBE has been appointed Governor of Gibraltar and will take his appointment during next December. Sir James succeeds Vice-Admiral Sir Adrian Johns KCB CBE.
The Royal Navy warship HMS Lancaster has visited Colombia to strengthen relationships with the country. The vessel called at the port of Cartagena ahead of Exercise Unitas, a multinational exercise being played out in the region headed by the US Navy.
Tierra del Fuego media recalled that on 17 September 1964 a United Nations sub-committee unanimously recommended that the “Malvinas case” be included among issues referred to Decolonisation and thus admits ‘the existence of sovereignty dispute over the Falklands and other South Atlantic islands’.
A British Conservative Member of Parliament Henry Smith labeled Argentine president Cristina Fernandez as ‘disgraceful’ for how she has treated the people of the Falkland Islands and also claimed she stopped an Argentine prosecutor from testifying before the US congress on the Buenos Aires 1994 bombing of an Israelite mutual association in order to protect a growing alliance with Iran.
With faces covered, flags and sticks the Argentine fundamentalist group Quebracho staged a protest in front of Buenos Aires Colon Opera House where the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee took place on Friday evening and which includes among its members Princess Anne.
Britain’s relationship with Spain could be damaged by the ongoing dispute over Gibraltar, Europe Minister David Lidington warned. Lidington told the Financial Times there was a danger the row would overshadow all other parts of the Anglo-Spanish relationship. “There is clearly a risk that this will cloud the bilateral relationship,” he said.
Spanish Foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo addressing parliament on Tuesday described the current diplomatic conflict with the UK as an ‘important fire’ and blamed it on three apparently minor incidents: Gibraltar authorities having dropped the agreement with Spanish fishermen a year ago; the recent dumping of cement blocks in the bay of Algeciras (Gibraltar) and the construction of a new reef.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague in an update to Parliament on the Spain/Gibraltar situation (border delays and illegal incursions into BGTW) said that the UK government continues to collect evidence of the Spanish disproportionate unlawful border measures, to share with the European Commission before their monitoring mission arrives and is also keeping under review the option of taking direct legal action against the Spanish Government.
The British Embassy Montevideo and Uruguay’s National Research and Innovation Agency signed an agreement to triple the number of scholarships.