Andorra defends 'active neutrality' at launch of Pyrenean conflicts volume

The Andorran Scholarly Association (SAC) presented Conflictes bèl·lics al Pirineu, a collection of papers from the XXI Trobades Culturals Pirinenques, at Calones in the capital yesterday. Foreign Minister Imma Tor used the occasion to defend the “active neutrality” the government has adopted recently in its official stance on the invasion of Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, on the Israeli occupation of Gaza.

Tor argued that the concept of active neutrality is not a new invention but has historical precedents in the principality. Critics who say the government has abandoned Andorra’s traditional neutrality point to the country’s recent alignment with Ukraine and its European allies; Tor sought in the volume’s essays historical examples that she said support a longer tradition of pragmatic neutrality.

Speakers and contributors discussed how neutrality has been understood differently over time. Fiter and Rossell, for example, limited neutrality to disputes between Spain and France, viewing broader international applications as irrelevant. The presentation also noted a historical parallel with Francoist Spain’s “non-belligerence” during World War II, when Spain simultaneously maintained formal neutrality and sent the Blue Division to the Eastern Front.

Essays in the book document moments when Andorra’s neutrality was shaped by external pressure and by local choices. Meritxell Mateu recounts 17th‑century episodes in which French and Spanish forces on Andorran soil compelled locals to cover military expenses. David Mas discusses an 1873 incident in which Dolors Camarlot of Casa Rossell personally financed a cannon for Carlist forces that occupied la Seu.

Organizers described Conflictes bèl·lics al Pirineu as a rich source of historical evidence on how Andorran neutrality has been practiced and interpreted across different periods.