Spain Boosts Budget for Disputed Territories Maintenance Amid Morocco Tensions

A few days before the high-level meeting between the Spanish and Moroccan authorities in Rabat, the Spanish Ministry of Defense has launched a call for tenders for the "complete maintenance of the islands and rocks of national sovereignty" for an amount of 144,230 euros, compared to barely 90,000 euros for the same service last year, reports Ok Diario.

The service provider ensures the maintenance of industrial refrigeration, gas, electrical installations, electrical panels, plumbing and water, tanks, pressure groups and cranes, generators and desalination plants. Two agents of the service provider company must be sent to each of the military bases of these territories to carry out this maintenance, it is specified.

Morocco maintains its claims on these territories under Spanish sovereignty, in addition to those on the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. In 2021, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the "unauthorized" installation of a Moroccan fish farm near the Chafarinas Islands. That same year, the remains of former soldiers buried in the cemeteries of Al Hoceima and Vélez de la Gomera were exhumed and transferred to a cemetery in Melilla.