Gibraltar talks to be held in Calvia

SPAIN will be represented by a Majorcan, José Pons, the director general of foreign policy, at the trilateral talks which will be held with the United Kingdom and Gibraltar in Palma on Monday and Tuesday. The UK representative will be Dominich Chilcott, European director for the Foreign Office, and for Gibraltar, chief minister Peter Caruana.
The meeting will be held in the Hotel Punta Negra in Calvia, to prepare a meeting at ministerial level to be held before the end of the year.
The trilateral meeeting will give Gibraltar a voice of its own at talks affecting the Rock.
However, the controversial question of sovreignty remains the subject of bilateral talks between Spain and the UK, although Gibraltar will be able to voice an opinion. Previous trilateral talks were held in Malaga in February and Portugal in July, and they will be resumed in Palma on Monday and Tuesday. Under discussion will be the airport, the border, pensions and telecommunications. Earlier this week, Peter Caruana addressed the UN in New York, to explain Gibraltar's chief minister, had gone to address the UN on the problems facing the Rock. He said “The people of Gibraltar have always shown friendship and respect to all those who have shown us friendship and respect, in actions as well as words. Spain is no exception.” But, he added, just as Spain has not renounced its claims to sovreignty over Gibraltar, the people of the Rock would not abandon their right to decide their future and to home rule. “Transferring sovreignty from the UK to Spain without taking into account the wishes of the people of Gibraltar is not decolonisation but recolonisation,” he said. Joe Bassano, former chief minister and leader of the opposition, was even tougher. He said that if the decolonisation of the Rock had not been settled after more than 300 years, it was “because of Spain and its interpretation of the Treaty of Utrecht.” He went on to say “Gibraltar is a nation under colonial domination chiefly because for 40 years Spain has done everything possible in international forums and bilaterally with the UK to prevent and frustrate our advances towards decolonisation.”