Just days after a British politician threatened war to protect its claim on Gibraltar, a Spanish ship sailed through its waters. It progressed slowly about a mile offshore, triggering an angry response.
The Royal Navy's HMS Westminster in 2013 by the Rock of GibraltarImage: Getty Images/P. B. Dominguez
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A Spanish warship sailed into the disputed waters of Gibraltar on Tuesday, goading Britain into a hasty interception.
Gibraltar's government published a video of the Spanish Navy patrol ship Infanta Cristina in the sea off the territory and accused it of carrying out an "illegal incursion" into its territorial waters.
Spain's Foreign Ministry denied the vessel had made an illegal incursion, as it does not recognize the UK's claims to the waters.
"An illegal incursion, no, because for us it is the utilization of our waters," a spokesman told the Reuters news agency.
"Spain does not recognize other rights and situations belonging to Great Britain in the maritime spaces that are not included in Article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht," he said.
A Ministry of Defense official told Associated Press the patrol was no different than others conducted on a weekly basis to monitor migration or drug trafficking across the Gibraltar Strait.
Gibraltar rock-steady against Brexit
The enclave's future has taken center stage recently in the wrangling over Britain's break from the European Union. The outpost wants to stay British but voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU.
Image: Getty Images/P. Blazquez Dominguez
"The Rock" looks to London
Britain has controlled the rocky speck of land for three centuries against Spain's wishes. But being in the EU has meant the border has been open to the unrestrained flow of workers, goods and money. Now, residents of "the Rock" on the southern tip of Spain have said they hoped for London's support as Prime Minister Theresa May's government negotiates the divorce.
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Keep calm and carry on
Gibraltar, which is barely twice the size of New York's Central Park and home to 32,000 people, has thrived economically under British rule and open trade with Spain. Its low corporate taxes, business-friendly regulation and links to the EU market since 1973 have attracted investment. Its inhabitants adopted a typically British stance on the Brexit row- keep calm and carry on.
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A distinctly British feel
Gibraltar has a strong flavour of Britishness, with pubs named "The Gibraltar Arms" or as in this picture "The Horseshoe". In last year's referendum, 96 percent of Gibraltarians voted to remain in the EU. Since then, pleas for a special deal that would allow Gibraltar to retain access to the EU single market have been blocked by Spain, which wants joint sovereignty of the territory.
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Hassle-free border
All citizens have to do to cross the border into Gibraltar for work is wave an identity card. People who depend on the border being open, are concerned: "We live in limbo; you hear one thing today and a different thing tomorrow, says a Spanish worker.
Image: Getty Images/P. Blazquez Dominguez
Monkey business
Barbary macaque monkeys lounge at the "Top of the Rock". Tourists can often be seen taking selfies with the Barbary macaques, the only free-roaming monkeys in Europe, that live on the promontory known as The Rock.
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Mediterranean flair
People walk along Main Street, the main pedestrian shopping street in the old city center. Nobody expects Gibraltar's border to be fully closed. But disruptions and queues - which already happen at times of diplomatic tensions between Britain and Spain - are a nightmare for workers and employers.
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The EU, the UK, Gibraltar and trade
A squabble between the two parties broke out after the EU last Friday published its draft negotiating position for Britain's divorce from the EU, stating the application of any EU-UK trade deals to Gibraltar had to be agreed between Britain and Spain, which has long claimed sovereignty over the enclave.
In response, British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a statement saying London was "steadfast" in its commitment to the territory. The former leader of her Conservative Party even suggested they would be prepared to go to war to defend it.
Gibraltar's Government claimed the Tuesday incident was the seventh incursion by a Spanish navy ship this year.
"The Royal Navy challenges all unlawful maritime incursions into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters - and did so again on this occasion," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
In July, Spain's Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador to protest what it described as reckless behavior by a Gibraltar police boat toward a Spanish police vessel.
