Oct 24 – FCO Restates Its Position On Ad Hoc Talks
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has restated its position on future ad hoc talks following an article in yesterday’s El Pais newspaper.
This is the full statement from the Convent:
“The position of the United Kingdom - as recently expressed in the UN Fourth Committee - has not changed in respect of its continued strong commitment to the Trilateral Forum for Dialogue. The UN Consensus Decision due to be adopted this week also makes this position clear. The El Pais article is therefore wrong to suggest any change in the position of the Government of the United Kingdom on the Trilateral Forum for Dialogue. The UK and Gibraltar proposed ad hoc talks to Spain in April 2012, because the current Spanish government ruled out trilateral talks, to which UK and Gibraltar remain strongly committed.
“In the absence of formal talks under the Trilateral Forum for Dialogue, the UK continues to seek a constructive move to ad hoc talks between officials. The objective of such talks would be to take forward co-operation on issues of mutual importance through means which reflect the wishes, interests, rights and responsibilities of Gibraltar. This means that the Government of Gibraltar will attend the ad hoc talks in its own right with its own head of delegation, reflecting the fact that Gibraltar has constitutional competence for everything except defence, foreign affairs and internal security.
Discussions are ongoing with the government of Spain to bring about the start of these talks."
