Nov 26 - Foreign Office Describes Frontier Bag Incident As A “Serious Infringement”
The Foreign Office has described an incident last Friday in which a British Government diplomatic bag was opened and searched by Guardia Civil officers as it was being couriered across the frontier as a “serious infringement of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
FCO spokesperson said:
“Protocol concerning the diplomatic bag is governed by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. There are long-established and internationally-accepted Articles concerning use of the diplomatic bag to which the FCO adheres. We expect other parties to the Convention, including EU and NATO allies, to do the same.
“We take very seriously any reported abuse of the protocol surrounding use of the diplomatic bag. We have asked the Spanish authorities to investigate what occurred and take action to ensure it does not happen again.
“As far as we are concerned there is no justification for this infringement of the UK’s rights under the Vienna Convention. Diplomatic Bags are inviolable.”
