  |
Spain had planned to revive 'dead and buried' Brussels process
|
The Government has expressed its satisfaction at 'the defence of Gibraltar and its people' by Prime Minister David Cameron in London on Tuesday, after meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
"The Government and people of Gibraltar were delighted to see the robust approach taken by the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary in the face of the intransigent Spanish insistence on the anachronistic claim over the sovereignty of the Rock and the clamour for the revival of the “dead and buried” Brussels Process," said Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo.
Britain and Spain formally agreed to discuss Gibraltar's sovereignty, which Spain claims after having ceded it to Britain in 1713, under an agreement signed in Brussels in 1984.
But the Gibraltar government rejects any bilateral talks between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar, and favour trilateral talks at which the Gibraltar government takes part as a third party.
Picardo said: “David Cameron does Gibraltar proud in the way he portrays diplomatically and clearly Gibraltar’s position to the Spanish Government.”
Both Cameron and Rajoy admitted at the end of the London meeting that their standpoints on Gibraltar differed.
For Cameron, "there’s no change in the (British) Government’s position. It’s for the people of Gibraltar themselves to determine their future and we wouldn’t engage in any discussion about Gibraltar that the Gibraltarians didn’t want us to engage in and I think that’s important to understand. "
Said Rajoy: "Our positions differ, but we will continue talking."
2012-02-23
|
|
|
|
