I have never been an advocate of gunboat diplomacy
and believe that tensions in the bay and our waters should be lessened and not
heightened.
This seems also to be the policy of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office who seemed happy enough that incursions in to British
Gibraltar Territorial Waters by the Guardia Civil or other Spanish Government
agencies be met by RGP or the Royal Navy launches.
I suspect the view in London was these were
essentially police, customs, coast guard or environmental vessels and hence to
send a fully armed warship out to meet them would be disproportionate. I
suspect they were right except of course what the FCO also needed to do but
failed was to send strong messages to Madrid that even these illegal incursions
were not acceptable. Inviting the ambassador or foreign ministry officials
around for a cup of tea and handing them a letter of protest, which would be
filed as soon as they returned to their office, was not what was required but
was Whitehall’s way of doing things.
Of course the game has now changed. It changed when
rather stupidly not reading the runes Madrid sent a warship on two consecutive
Tuesdays in to our waters: on the second occasion provocatively displaying a
war flag. I receive a regular supply of emails from No 6 but never before have
I received a steady stream from The Convent jumping up and down about the
Spanish actions. As I said in a recent article: the tide has changed.
The tide has changed because the British Government’s
stance on Gibraltar is very much linked to the Falklands. I have stated here
before the welcome strong words from the British Prime Minister David Cameron,
his Foreign Secretary William Hague and the Europe Minister David Lidington on
our sovereignty and right to self determination were very much provoked because
of the need to remain strong over the Falklands. It was no good being weak on
Gibraltar because that would give a sign to Buenos Aires that pressure on
London would pay off over the Malvinas.
Whether Spain wanted to impress the Latin American
heads of state and prime ministers gathered in Cádiz last week for the
bicentenary of La Pepa Constitution of 1812 – the Spanish Magna Carta and that
of many of these countries – by acting tough over Gibraltar is anybody’s guess.
It was either that or a massive miscalculation by Margallo.
The fact is Britain could allow the police, customs,
coast guard or environmental agencies to mess around in our waters because
quite simply none of them would have ventured out to the Falklands. However a
warship is a different kettle of fish as has been displayed by The Convent’s
and the Foreign Office’s angry response.
The RGP will shortly have larger patrol boats to meet
the Guardia Civil and others but there is no warship on standby to fly the White
Ensign in the face of the Armada. I think that should change. British MP Andrew
Rosindell has stated the same in the House of Commons and he was right to do
so.
I appreciate that the Royal Navy is short of warships
but I am sure one could be stationed in Gibraltar even if it had to leave port
to undertake missions elsewhere. The point is it should be in our port or at
any time a short distance away so that any incursion by the Spanish navy will
never be sure whether it will be met by a RN launch or one warship with a very
large gun or missile.
Sending a gun boat need not necessarily increase
tensions. After all it can carry out NATO tasks in the Straits and the Med. The
Ministry of Defence often sends warships to the Falklands insisting it is not
an act of provocation but just part of a vessel’s tour of duty. What is good
for the Falklands is equally good for Gibraltar and the Rock would welcome
being host and home to Royal Navy vessels on a permanent basis.
