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Government accepted in Trilateral Forum that sovereignty is bilateral
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Letter sent to PANORAMA
Dear Sir,
Last night, after a late night ‘vindaloo’ washed down with copious supplies of vintage red I had no end of difficulties catching my sleep, I suppose old age makes no small contribution to this.
I did what I always do, stroll around make myself a nice brew, watch late night TV and scrounge around for any reading material which will induce a forced slumber. I came across an old copy of the “Trilateral Forum - OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS RELEASED AFTER THE MEETING IN CORDOBA, COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE MINISTERIAL MEETING OF THE FORUM OF DIALOGUE ON GIBRALTAR, and I thought if this doesn’t force me into a deep sleep nothing will.
After getting through all the business of fences and frontiers, at the very bottom of paragraph 3, I came across a surprising sentence, which states…. “The Government of Gibraltar understands and accepts that references to sovereignty in this Communiqué are bilateral to the UK and Spain”. I began to question my reasoning and analytical powers over this, having read on that same day an article in a local on-line newspaper in connection with Spain’s Partido Popular inclusion in their election manifesto which was published last week, their intentions to resuscitate the Brussels process and thus returning to bilateralism and the ‘two flags, three voices’ formula of the 1980s.
The PP is expected to sweep into power when Spain goes to the polls in a general election on November 20, a marked historical day indeed, its not only my birthday but also the day General Franco died.
Reading further into the on-line newspaper article, it mentions that the Chief Minister has made the point on numerous occasions during public interventions in recent months, most recently during the Gibraltar Day in London that it was self-evident that “only trilateral relations are acceptable.” ??Bilateral negotiations between the UK and Spain on any issue relating to Gibraltar would “…as a matter of political architecture represent a violation of, and betrayal of, the political rights of the people of Gibraltar to determine their own political future.”??I couldn’t agree with him more.
By now it was well into the silent hours, but I still had difficulty in digesting on the one hand, that last sentence in paragraph 3 of the Cordoba Agreement and the statements made by the Chief Minister, whom I presume was signatory to the agreement. Somewhere along the lines of these two statements there’s something that doesn’t sit right, or perhaps it’s just me being my own cynical self once again. Believe me I’ve tried every which way to be positive and optimistic but I guess it’s not in my character.
It could well be that there is a topographical error in the Cordoba agreement, or the article published in the on-line newspaper, this things do happen and one can never tell.
I would welcome the views of any of your readers who could enlighten me on how we stand in the “understanding and acceptances that references to sovereignty in the Cordoba Agreement are bilateral to the UK and Spain” or if “only trilateral relations are acceptable on any issue relating to Gibraltar”. I remain totally confused and any guidance would very much put my mind at rest.
Joe Bishop
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