Royal Navy’s Gibraltar-based fast patrol boat HMS Scimitar was forced to respond to a Spanish warship incursion into Gibraltar waters for the second time in a month.
The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that Spanish Navy corvette Infanta Cristina was escorted out of Gibraltar waters on Thursday morning.
The government of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar posted a photo of the Spanish vessel in territorial waters on its official Twitter account. The government also posted a video of a previous incursion that took place on April 4.
Illegal incursion into #British #Gibraltar Territorial Waters by Spanish Navy patrol ship Infanta Cristina this afternoon. #BGTW pic.twitter.com/IkYadi8XNn
— HM Govt of Gibraltar (@GibraltarGov) April 4, 2017
This is the latest in a row of standoffs between Spain and Great Britain in Gibraltar waters as Spanish vessels have been spotted in British waters on multiple occasions in the past.
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory which shares its northern border with the Province of Cádiz in Andalusia, Spain.
An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession and the territory was subsequently ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
This territory has remained a point of contention between the two countries as Spain never relinquished its claims to the territory.