Spanish heir to throne waded into the centuries old row over the disputed territory at the foot of the Iberian Peninsula at a gala dinner to welcome the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall on their first official visit together to Spain.
"I express my hope that our authorities make progress towards a solution to our historic bilateral dispute which is yet to be resolved," said the 43-year-old Prince of Asturias in a speech at the Palacio Real in Madrid.
Although he did not mention Gibraltar by name it was clear he was referring to the tiny peninsula on Spain's southwestern tip, which Madrid ceded to London under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
Spain still claims sovereignty over the Rock, home to 28,000 Gibraltarians, who in a 2002 referendum overwhelmingly rejected a deal to shared sovereignty between the two nations and demanded to remain a part of Britain.
The royal couple have avoided Gibraltar during their first official joint tour of the Iberian Peninsula, skirting the inevitable controversy that a visit to the disputed territory would produce in Spain.
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