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GIBRALTAR - Spanish diplomats held talks in the British-ruled territory of Gibraltar for the first time in more than 300 years today, but avoided the disputed issue of who should have sovereignty over the rocky outcrop.
The meeting, which participants said had gone "with satisfaction", is a further sign of thawing tensions since General Francisco Franco closed the border in 1969.
Last year, for the first time, Spain sat down with an official Gibraltar delegation alongside the British in talks designed to improve transport and communications to Gibraltar and economic development on the Spanish side of the border.
"I am happy to be here in Gibraltar. It is the fruit of this process that I am able to be here," the Spanish foreign ministry's European affairs director Jose Pons told a press conference after Monday's meeting.
Delegates from all three sides met to review an agreement signed last September that lifted a ban on flights between Spain and the 6.5 sq km (2.5 sq mile) spit of land. The deal also eased border controls and recognised Gibraltar's international telephone code.
Flights between Madrid and Gibraltar started in December.
Britain captured the rock in 1704 and Spain ceded sovereignty to London 9 years later, but ever since, it has been fighting to regain the strategic spur that sits at the entrance to the Mediterranean and which played a key role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and World War Two.
Although sovereignty was not discussed there was progress.
Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana announced at the press conference that Spanish pensioners who used to work in the colony but lost entitlements after Franco closed the border in 1969, had agreed to accept a payout from Britain.
Britain and Spain once looked at sharing sovereignty of the Rock, home to 28,000 people. But in 2002, 99 per cent of them voted against the move, demanding to remain part of Britain.
Future talks are expected to focus on issues relating to financial services and tax, law enforcement, maritime links and the environment.
- REUTERS
