Britain protests to Spain over Gibraltar diplomatic bag incident
Foreign Office in London complains of unprecedented breach of diplomatic protocol between fellow EU and Nato members
Britain accused Madrid on Tuesday of a “serious infringement” of international protocol, saying Spanish police had opened a British diplomatic bag on the border with its contested territory of Gibraltar.
Madrid denied that its officers had opened any diplomatic bag, which are typically used by envoys to carry official correspondence.
Spain lays claim to Gibraltar, a small rocky outcrop on its southern coast that it ceded to Britain 300 years ago, and tensions have been running high in recent months over the British overseas territory.
Britain’s Foreign Office said the incident happened last Friday and marked the first time a fellow European Union member and Nato ally had broken international rules by opening a diplomatic bag. The last time such an incident occurred was in Zimbabwe in 2000, it said.
“We take very seriously any reported abuse of the protocol surrounding official correspondence and the diplomatic bag,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. “Official correspondence and diplomatic bags are inviolable.
“We have asked the Spanish authorities to investigate what occurred and take action to ensure it does not happen again.”
