Feb 19 – Deputy CM Remarks On Strength And Resilience Of Special Relationship With U.S
This is the text of an address by the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia at a dinner in honour of a visiting delegation of the Congress of the United States of America
Members of the delegation of the Congress of the United States, Ministers, distinguished guests. Good evening and welcome.
And, of course, I would like to extend a very special welcome to our guests from the United States of America.
Gibraltar is grateful to you for very presence here tonight. Your programme has included educational and cultural insights as well as military, economic and historical.
In coming to Gibraltar you are treading on the footsteps of General Grant, the 18th President of the United States who visited Gibraltar in 1878 after his presidency;
of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President who visited in 1909 also after his Presidency;
of General Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th President who was here in 1942 before being elected to the Presidency;
and of George H W Bush, the 41st President who was here in 1994, the year after he ceased to be President.
Your visit to us this week is proof of the special relationship that you share with the British family of nations, of which Gibraltar is a part, and we are honoured to have you here.
Let me say that we made a special effort today to transform the weather and lower the temperature to 8 or 9 degrees just to make you feel at home!
Ours is a historic relationship, born out of common interest, shared values and collective experiences over hundreds of years. Together we have fought and survived wars, endured economic crises and protected and promoted those values worldwide.
Those values are underpinned by a fundamental belief in freedom, in democracy, in justice and in self-determination. The United States itself was born as a consequence of those very ideals.
Since the early 1800s those core American values have been defended from Gibraltar's shores in what was the United States’ first military operation overseas against the Barbary pirates based in North Africa. Indeed, the first shots fired by an American battleship abroad were to salute the then Governor of Gibraltar as the fleet made its way into port.
In February 1909, over 100 years ago, Gibraltar played host to seventeen American battleships, with 13,000 men and officers on board.
In February 2016, this month, the submarine USS Newport News spent over a week in Gibraltar undergoing non-nuclear repairs.
Gibraltar has loyally and humbly served as a forward-operating base for the United Kingdom and its allies through two World Wars, two Gulf wars, and practically every conflict.
We are reminded of these sacrifices every day by the American War Memorial that stands proudly at the heart of Gibraltar's busiest commercial district. This was erected by the United States in 1932 following the First World War.
We stand with you, not only on our home soil and on our seas, but in our own sacrifices too. I have often described the wartime Evacuation of the civilian population of Gibraltar as a watershed in the development of our people. That sacrifice of an entire generation of Gibraltarians enabled General Eisenhower to plan and command Operation Torch, the liberation of North Africa, from here, their beloved home: a safe and impregnable fortress.
Some of the children and grandchildren of the Evacuation generation signed on to the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, and volunteered to serve alongside American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are rightly proud as a small country that two of our military officers were decorated for their bravery during these campaigns by the United Kingdom and the United States and that they are present in this room this evening.
Today, we provide vital military and logistical facilities for UK, US and NATO operations. We are allies in the truest sense, and whilst we share an experience of the past, together we must face the challenges and threats of an uncertain future.
Tonight we don't need to delve too deeply into the issues and threats from the many instabilities in the Middle East and North Africa, or into the potential impact that this may have on our economies, our fuel supplies, the vital transport of our goods and services through those narrow Straits, and ultimately, on our way of life.
There is no doubt, however, that the acute humanitarian emergency on Europe's shores cannot be ignored by any of us and it may result in the greatest international diplomatic challenge we face in our lifetime.
Time and time again we have proved that the strength of our special relationship has been the key to its resilience.
On another matter, Gibraltar's vibrant and accomplished financial services industry has provided a fantastic service to US businesses for years. The Gibraltar-American Chamber of Commerce AMCHAM is now actively bolstering those ties even further, and has already conducted successful trade missions to the United States and to Gibraltar since its establishment in 2014.
The Board Members and representatives of AMCHAM with us tonight are all very welcome.
It should be noted that Gibraltar has entered into the equivalent of 125 tax information exchange agreements with some 77 countries and territories around the world.
Our very first Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) was precisely with the United States. It was signed in London on the 31st March 2009 by the then Chief Minister of Gibraltar and the then United States Treasury Secretary.
On the 8th May 2014, my colleague Albert Isola, Minister with responsibility for Financial Services, signed the United States reciprocal Intergovernmental Agreement with Gibraltar (IGA, commonly known as US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, US FATCA). This was signed at the United States Embassy in London.
On September 30th 2015 Gibraltar successfully and on time, permitted the transfer of automatic tax data to the United States under the terms of the US FATCA. We also received tax information from the USA.
And in November 2015, Gibraltar received a letter of commendation from the Commissioner of the US Department of the Treasury. This letter praised the achievement of a remarkable milestone, the electronic exchange of financial account information between our respective tax administrations. The US Commissioner also thanked Gibraltar for our ability to carry out the “necessary steps to ensure compliance of our financial institutions and implement a secure, electronic information exchange”.
This letter is further clear evidence of the excellent spirit of cooperation between Gibraltar and the United States.
A special relationship, built on the strongest foundations, is set to last. Every year Gibraltar sends a delegation of our finest graduates on study and work placements in Washington DC. This, I think, provides a good basis for the continuation of that relationship into the future.
As we look towards that future, the strong bonds that we have cultivated will be more important than ever. The significance of these ties, based on a fundamental belief in freedom, democracy and justice, transcends the constraints of both time and politics: a fact proven by the breadth of the political spectrum represented here tonight!
It is these shared values that will carry us forward.
The defence and promotion of the right of the people of Gibraltar to self-determination is essential to the defence and promotion of the values that we share.
I therefore take the opportunity, on behalf of the Government and the people of Gibraltar, to thank our friends here for putting that commitment to our self-determination down on paper in a House of Representatives resolution. I understand that this carries more than 25 signatures at the moment.
And during our next visit to Washington DC I look forward to working with all of you in the Congressional Delegation to continue to improve the links between Gibraltar and the United States of America.
We are honoured to have you with us tonight as our guests, our allies and our friends.
Thank you.
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