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The first disagreement of any agreement
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Panoramic View
By Joe Garcia
In the world of diplomacy, officials can burn much midnight oil deciding where to put a comma or a full-stop - let alone determine if they are engaged in talks, conversations, discussions, negotiations or even talks about talks.
Discussions on sovereignty is one thing; negotiations is something else.
In these days of politics-by-the-dictionary, if you look up the phrase 'to discuss', you are told it means 'to debate; to consider or examine by argument.'
However, 'to negotiate' means something else - 'to treat (with another) in order to make a bargain, agreement, compromise etc.'
In Spanish 'discutir' means to examine a question in detail, which is almost what the British would mean by negotiations. Certainly, when the British talk of 'discussions', the Spaniards interpret it as 'negotiations'. It is the first disagreement about any agreement.
Since English can be the opposite of Spanish, you can well imagine the interpretative differences that can ensue when they settle down to talk about such a sensitive issue as Gibraltar.
When I covered the first Gibraltar talks with Gibraltarian representation - that was in Strasbourg - they were described as 'exploratory talks'. In other words, talks to try to determine if formal talks could be held.
Another momentous occasion: the first talks under Brussels process, which was not an 'agreement' but a 'declaration', if you want to be diplomatic about it. While the frontier re-opened here, the Gibraltar delegation was in Geneva. Both sides had agreed 'to discuss' sovereignty for the first time ever.
The Spaniards may have done some discussing, certainly the British had no intention of negotiating, yet the then Spanish foreign minister actually pulled a fait accompli from the bag as if by magic - proposals for an eventual transfer of sovereignty to Spain!
Subsequently, another Spanish foreign minister went to talks with a set of proposals already in his briefcase: proposals based on a set of proposals made some years earlier.
Even a moron would know what it is the Spaniards are after, which is not to hold talks, conversations, discussions, negotiations... call it what you will...unless sovereignty is the end product.
But as an exGovernor put it, Gibraltar is not for Spain to claim or for Britain to give.
26-03-12
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