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Caruana defends himself
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In a personal statement about the Hain book, Peter Caruana says:
"Any suggestion by Mr. Hain that I may at any time have given him any indication of support for any arrangement with Spain that might involve any degree of joint sovereignty with Spain, whether by virtue of the Andorra model or any other model is untrue.
"The suggestion that anything I may have said to Mr. Hain may have encouraged him to pursue his joint sovereignty discussions with Spain is absurd and untrue.
"I have at all times, whether it be to officials or Ministers, including Mr. Hain, and whether it be orally or in writing, or privately or publically, or formally or informally made our position clear, namely, that there is no prospect of either the Government or People of Gibraltar agreeing to any measure of Spanish Sovereignty nor any arrangement that gives Spain a say in the conduct of our affairs. There has never been any degree of departure from this position.
"The public and private political debate between Peter Hain and me in relation to the joint sovereignty initiative became quite aggressive at the time and is well documented. At no time has he ever suggested any such thing, whether in the numerous minuted telephone conversations,
"Parliamentary debates, Foreign Affairs Committee enquiries and appearances or media exchanges in which we have both participated on this subject.
"Far from inspiring or being involved in the undemocratic and infamous joint sovereignty initiative, it will be recalled that the debate between GOG and HMG in 2001 was about the UK and Spain’s refusal to accept our terms to participate in dialogue, particularly our insistence on a veto. Because they refused our terms we played no part whatsoever in the matter in any way, shape or form, save to oppose it vigorously from the very start, as is well known in Gibraltar and elsewhere. "Mr. Hain’s statement that Spain had given us virtually all the terms we wanted and asked for but that we still “frustratingly refused to come” is not true. Our terms for participation in dialogue were not met at that time, and indeed were not met until the establishment of the trilateral Forum.”
24-01-12
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