Walter Finch
A SPANISH warship entered British waters off the coast of Gibraltar yesterday afternoon and made a pass by the site of a controversial land reclamation project.
El Rayo, a 2,860-tonne, 94m maritime patrol vessel made the unusual choice of activating its AIS transponder while traversing through the contested waters.
HMS Dagger of the Gibraltar Squadron was scrambled from its berth to escort its NATO ally vessel as it made its incursion.
Eyewitnesses on East Beach reported that El Rayo came within around 1,000 metres of the coastline as it made its pass.
The Spanish patrol ship switched its transponder off as soon as it exited British Gibraltar Territorial Waters around 17.15.
“The Royal Navy challenged an incursion and escorted a Spanish navy vessel out of British Gibraltar Territorial Waters,” the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) told the Olive Press in a statement.
“The FCDO makes formal diplomatic representation to Spain where appropriate. Incursions are a violation of UK sovereignty, not a threat to it.”
The Olive Press previously reported how El Rayo was dispatched last month to conduct operations in the Strait and the Alboran Sea ‘to help ensure the security of [Spanish] national maritime areas.’
The Rayo is one of two Metereo-class vessels in the Spanish navy, also known as a BAM (Buque de Accion Marítima or Maritime Action Ship) which are designed to ‘control areas of Spanish sovereignty and national interest.’
The warship’s assignment coincided with the commencement of a large land reclamation project off Gibraltar’s Mediterranean side which has attracted protests from Spains.
It is likely to give rise to speculation that the purpose of the incursion was to assert Spanish sovereignty over the waters currently being reclaimed for the development of the €340 million Eastside project.
The month-long land reclamation is set to transform the character of Gibraltar’s Mediterranean coast.
It will pave the way for the construction of luxury apartments, offices, a shopping centre and restaurants as well as a new marina that could add €3bn of economic value to the territory.
The project will also add parks, playgrounds, and community centres to Gibraltar’s less-populated eastern side.
The land refill is set to utilise the rubble pile that has long been an eyesore near the Hassans Centenary Terrace towers.
However, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said it has protested multiple times about the landfill, which it claims Gibraltar is carrying out in Spanish territorial waters.
The British Overseas Territory claims territorial waters extending three nautical miles (5.5km) into the sea around the peninsula – far less than the 12 nautical miles permitted by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The Spanish position is that, under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht which ceded Gibraltar to the United Kingdom, the waters were not included and thus remain Spanish.
Gibraltar police sources tell the Olive Press that the incursions into BGTW have been ‘going on for years’ to assert Spanish sovereignty of the waters with a future UNCLOS tribunal over the dispute in mind.
Historians argue that in 1713 the concept of territorial waters did not exist as it does today in international law, and to cede the Port of Gibraltar to the British but retain control of the waters would make no sense.
