The British Foreign Office defended the Royal Navy’s decision to order a Spanish warship out of Gibraltar’s disputed territorial waters, the latest spat in the row between the UK and Spain over the enclave’s future after Brexit.
An FCO spokesperson described the incident as an unlawful maritime incursion.
Spain has for centuries been demanding Gibraltar back and does not recognise the waters as sovereign British overseas territory.
A Spanish patrol boat, Infanta Cristina, was told to leave on Tuesday by a Royal Navy unit from the Gibraltar squadron.
In August 2015, Gibraltar’s chief minister accused the Spanish government of an “outrageous” violation of British sovereignty by sending boats and helicopters into UK waters.
Fabian Picardo said he was “astonished and appalled” after Spanish police made several incursions into British waters while chasing criminals. The Royal Navy helped escort the Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera (SVA) – the Spanish police’s drugs and money laundering squad – out of British waters after the international row.
A year earlier, a Spanish warship disrupted a British forces parachute training exercise before it was escorted from the area by HMS Sabre.
In August 2013, British military and police boats had to push back a flotilla of about 38 Spanish vessels that were protesting against a concrete reef built by Gibraltar’s government to protect its fish stocks.