[ad_1]
Spain has sent a warship to the Strait of Gibraltar on an “observation and deterrence” mission amid heightened tensions with the British overseas territory.
The Spanish Defense Staff announced lightningA 2,860-ton, 94-meter-long offshore patrol vessel will operate in the Strait and the Alboran Sea “to help ensure the security of national waters.”
The Rayo is one of two Metereo-class ships of the Spanish Navy, also known as BAM (Offshore Operations Vessel The Spanish Navy has the title of “Maritime Action Ship” and its purpose is to “control areas of Spanish sovereignty and national interests.”
The deployment comes as Spanish officials accuse Gibraltar of “infringing its sovereign waters” with a massive land reclamation project on its Mediterranean side of the rock, prompting an extremely sensitive Spanish response.
The East End project is an ambitious €340 million commercial development that includes a superyacht marina, office towers, shopping centre and residential apartments.
While much of the reclamation is said to come from rubble left over from the construction of the King’s Avenue Tunnel, soil is also believed to be trucked in from quarries in Casares and Manilva, just across the border.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said last week it had protested repeatedly against Gibraltar’s landfill, claiming it was within Spanish territorial waters.
The ministry reportedly claims that land reclamation violates international law and also breaches Spanish and European environmental protection laws. Spanish diplomat.
The presence of the Spanish warships is likely to be seen as a provocation by Gibraltar and London and will once again raise the thorny issue of disputed waters around Gibraltar.
It’s a flashpoint that comes to a head every summer, usually when one side or the other believes a fishing boat has “violated sovereign territorial waters.”
But the risk is higher lightning In the picture.
Gibraltar claims its territorial waters extend to 3 nautical miles (5.5 km) around the peninsula, well below the 12 nautical miles allowed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
But the Spanish argued that the waters were not included in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ceded Gibraltar to Britain, and therefore still belonged to Spain.
However, it means that even swimming at Gibraltar beaches would technically violate Spain’s sovereign territorial waters.
Nonetheless, the Spanish considered the problem serious enough to warrant gunboat diplomacy.
The Gibraltar government has warned that Spain will install facilities in the territory to enforce a hard border once the EU’s new Entry and Exit System (EES) is implemented in November.
Both sides are preparing for the possibility that post-Brexit talks could fail, which could lead to the end of the mobile border that currently sees 15,000 people cross each day.
But talking to GBC Gibraltar, Spain First Minister Fabian Picardo noted that such tensions with Spain over the summer were “nothing new”.
“Every year as we approach August, the issue of Gibraltar always comes up,” he said.
“Many very serious political issues in Spain disappear from the front pages of newspapers, while the latest Gibraltar nonsense may make it to the front pages, playing to people’s usual prejudices.
“The Spanish political parties – especially the right-wing ones – use Gibraltar as a drum to rally support, which is why we have to speak out every time this happens.”
lightning It will set sail on July 28 for a voyage lasting approximately 10 days, arriving in Malaga between August 7 and 9.
[ad_2]
Source link
