Spanish Subs Mission Environment: Offshore Regions

Following on from Spanish submarines have many challenging mission concerns. My thanks to an anonymous person on my sitemeter from Ceuta, Spain (which I surprisingly saw was south across the Med from Spain). He/she prompted me to explore the submarine implications of all of Spain's offshore autonomous cities/islands as well as those Brits in Gibraltar. 

Spain has national interests and duties under NATO that would include such submarine activities as:
-  monitoring threats to Spain's offshore autonomous cities/islands
-  electronic monitoring and special forces insertion of African coastal countries 
-  monitoring of non-NATO subs (eg. Algeria's) but also UK-NATO subs
-  electronic monitoring (one day using AIP) of more distant Middle Eastern countries and I'm guessing Latin America
-  shadowing Russian Kilo subs transiting in/near Spanish territorial waters, and
-  monitoring non-state threats (eg. counter-terrorism, drug, arms and people smuggling).

ALGERIA

Regarding ASW Spanish subs would keep tabs on Algerian subs. Algeria now has six Kilo subs from Russia (including 2 old 877 Kilos and 4 Improved 636 Kilos - see Algerian Navy.)

On the map see Spain's Ceuta and Melilla enclaves bordering northern Morocco. Gibraltar (GB aka UK) above the straits and Spain's Canary Islands west of Morocco.
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SPANISH ENCLAVES BORDERING MOROCCO

Morocco is exploring the issue of submarines for the Moroccan Navy. Given all the Morocco-Spanish territorial disputes detailed below, future Moroccan subs could be a real headache for Spain.  

Spanish subs help provide security for the autonomous Spanish city of Ceuta (which lies south, across the Med, and actually borders Morocco - see map above). Offshore from Ceuta is the uninhabited rocky islet of Perejil whose ownership is disputed by Spain and Morocco. Perejil was the location of a "crisis" in 2002.

Spanish submarines, its broader Navy and Armed forces generally would also provide security for the Spanish enclave port city of Melilla also bordering Morocco and east of Ceuta. 

"The government of Morocco has repeatedly called for Spain to transfer the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla, along with uninhabited islets such as the islands of Alhucemas, the rock of Vélez and the Perejil island. Spain's position is both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of Spain, and have been since the 16th century, centuries prior to Morocco's independence from France in 1956.

CANARY ISLANDS

The Spanish Navy (including subs) and Spanish Airforce also provides security for the Canary Islands. 

The Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago, 100km west of Morocco. These islands are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Canaries (population just over 2 million) are economically and politically European, and is part of the EU. The islands have 14 seats in the Spanish Senate. 

The Canaries have been of high naval strategic and economic trade importance to Spain since about 1492 and today also for NATO. There are several ports and large airports on the islands.  Because of their location, the islands have historically been considered a bridge between the four continents of Africa, North and South America and Europe.

The international boundary of the Canaries is the subject of dispute between Spain and Morocco. "Morocco's official position is that international laws regarding territorial limits do not authorise Spain to claim seabed boundaries based on the territory of the Canaries, since the Canary Islands enjoy a large degree of autonomy. In fact, the islands do not enjoy any special degree of autonomy as each one of the Spanish regions is considered an autonomous community with equal status to the European ones. The boundary determines the ownership of seabed oil deposits and other ocean resources. Morocco and Spain have been unable to agree on a compromise regarding the territorial boundary, since neither nation wants to cede its claimed right to the vast resources whose ownership depends upon the boundary."

GIBRALTAR

The Strait of Gibraltar, about 13.6km wide is a naval choke point. Whichever country owns Gibraltar can block the strait - especially if Spain owned Gibraltar in the north to compliment its existing ownership of Ceuta at the southern lip of the strait (see map above). The strait remains strategically important, with half the world's seaborne trade passing through it.

Gibraltar is unsurprisingly another point of tension, but this time Spain's opponent is the UK - a nuclear weapons owning P5 power and major NATO "ally". Spanish submarines do, at times, track the movements of UK Royal Navy (RN) subs and ships entering or leaving Gibraltar harbour. Small Spanish government vessels have also been known to "buzz" such shipping and complicate UK SSN docking.

Gibraltar, being a British Overseas Territory, has never been part of the UK (technically speaking). But like the Falkland Islands the UK holds it dear and Gibraltar has major strategic value and economic value. 

Gibraltar of course borders the southern tip of Spain. In 1704, Anglo-Dutch forces captured Gibraltar from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession. Gibraltar was ceded to the UK in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. During the Napoleonic Wars and WWII Gibraltar was an important base for the  RN as it controlled the entrance and exit to the Mediterranean Sea. 

The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum and, in a 2002 referendum, the idea of shared sovereignty was also rejected.

On 31 January 2020, the UK and Gibraltar left the European Union. In December 2020, the UK and Spain agreed in principle to a basis on which the UK and the EU might negotiate terms for Gibraltar to participate in aspects of the Schengen Agreement.
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So thanks to Ceuta's visits, picked up on my sitemeter, I've been most gratefully lured into  exploring a whole "new" geo-political region of interest to submarines. Thankyou Ceuta :)