and NATO, for which it needed British support. In 1980, talks between British and Spanish ministers led to the Lisbon Agreement, a statement on co-operation between the two countries that committed them to starting negotiations on Gibraltar's future and lifting the Spanish restrictions on communications with Gibraltar. Although Britain promised to "honour the freely and democratically expressed wishes of the people of Gibraltar", Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher indicated in the House of Commons that sovereignty would be on the table, in a change from the previous policy. However, the border was not reopened due to "technical issues" – code for unresolved issues between the two governments – and the agreement was strongly opposed by many Gibraltarians, who did not wish their sovereignty to be under discussion and objected to the lack of Gibraltarian representatives at the talks. The outbreak of the Falklands War in 1982 caused a further delay. Argentina carried out an unsuccessful sabotage operation, kept secret at the time, that was intended to sink a Royal Navy frigate in Gibraltar's harbour; the saboteurs were captured by the Spanish police in Algeciras before they could carry out their attack. A further agreement was reached in Brussels in 1984, which clarified the Lisbon Agreement and required that Britain allow Spaniards to live and work in Gibraltar, which they would have the right to do anyway as EEC citizens. The border was finally fully reopened on 4–5 February 1985. Modern Gibraltar After the border reopened, the British government reduced the military presence in Gibraltar by closing the naval dockyard. The RAF presence was also downgraded; although the airport officially remains an RAF base, military aircraft are no longer permanently stationed there. The British garrison, which had been present since 1704, was withdrawn in 1990 following defence cutbacks at the end of the Cold War. A number of military units continue to be stationed in Gibraltar under the auspices of British Forces Gibraltar; the garrison was replaced with locally recruited units of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, while a Royal Navy presence is continued through the Gibraltar Squadron, responsible for overseeing the security of Gibraltar's territorial waters. In March 1988 a British military operation against members of the Provisional IRA (PIRA) planning a car bomb attack in Gibraltar ended in controversy when the Special Air Service shot and killed all three PIRA members. The military cutbacks inevitably had major implications for Gibraltar's economy,