Tense stand-off as Spanish patrol vessel encounters Royal Navy ship in Strait of Gibraltar

HMS Dagger was shadowing a Russian merchant ship carrying petroleum products when, according to Spain, it allegedly strayed into waters off the Spanish enclave of Ceuta

ABC

Madrid

Monday, 21 April 2025, 12:14

A new tense meeting between the Spanish Navy and the UK's Royal Navy has taken place over Britain's alleged interference in Spanish waters in the Strait of Gibraltar, specifically in areas very close to Ceuta. On Thursday 17 April, the Spanish patrol vessel Isla de León encountered HMS Dagger while the British patrol vessel was tracking a Russian logistics vessel.

The standoff took place between 8.30pm and 10pm. The British patrol vessel HMS Dagger left Gibraltar at 8.12pm, with the intention of intercepting the passage of the Russian merchant ship General Skobelev through the Strait of Gibraltar. The Russian vessel was transporting oil products.

The Spanish patrol vessel Isla de León, which had begun a maritime surveillance, naval presence and control of sovereign spaces mission before the encounter, left its base in the port of Ceuta to keep watch over HMS Dagger. According to sources, the British ship had entered the Spanish waters off Ceuta for the "second time".

The origin of this conflict stems not from the banned export of crude oil by sea that the Russian oil tanker was carrying out through the Strait of Gibraltar, but from an alleged new British military incursion into Spanish waters.

Russian tanker General Skobelev shadowed by 🇪🇸@Armada_esp SPS Isla de Leon and @RNGibSqn
HMS Dagger eastbound in the Strait of Gibraltar today. - April 17, 2025@NavyLookout @Capt_Navy @YorukIsik @UKForcesTracker pic.twitter.com/YVDC4RoNMV
— jr_amon_ceuta_shipspotting (@jr_amon_ceuta) April 17, 2025

Spain only recognises the internal waters of the port of Gibraltar as British, while the UK extends its jurisdiction to the three miles east and south of the Rock of Gibraltar, which Spain claims as its own because they were not included in the Treaty of Utrecht. The encounter took place further south, just 6.6 nautical miles from Ceuta - an area of sea that the UK does not recognise as Spanish sovereignty either and, instead, considers international waters.

The latest incident happened in the midst of the delicate negotiations between Spain and the UK on the new Treaty on the Rock, more than five years after the Withdrawal Agreement that formalised Brexit. It also comes at a time of full-on defiance from Gibraltar toward Spain. As reported by ABC, last week, the Gibraltar government assured that it would push ahead the Eastside megaproject, which also allegedly encroaches on the Spanish-claimed waters.

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