When it comes to the actual defense of the country, Malta’s most important ally is currently Italy, with whom Malta has an agreement allowing Italy to deploy its military and defense forces to assist Malta in the event of an attack or invasion. There is also a response time by Italy which is known by both parties.
Technically, Malta has security arrangements with its Western neighbours and allies that are very similar to a NATO security system. Had Malta, joined NATO, it would have a very similar security arrangement. The only thing missing from a NATO agreement is that Malta is not obliged to help Italy militarily, yet Malta does collaborate extensively with Italy on security matters of all level including those of a criminal nature.
All of Malta’s security and defence entities communicate and collaborate with their Italian counterparts and Italy even provides Malta’s Armed Forces, the Police, and even Prosecutors training and support on technical matters.
A recurring theme in Italy and Malta’s cooperation is drug trafficking, a significant issue between the two nations due to Malta’s geographic position and proximity to Italy. Italian and Maltese authorities have collaborated on various high-profile cases involving both Maltese and Italian drug traffickers.
By having a defence alliance with Western countries without joining NATO, Malta is in a relatively privileged position because it enjoys protection from its neighbours and allies without having any obligation to do the same. On the other hand, Malta’s position and relationship with NATO and its defence philosophy is pre-conditioned by the very fact that Malta is extremely vulnerable due to its small size. This means that in material terms, Malta does not afford to take a lot of risk in its defence due to its excessive state of vulnerability. Any talk about Malta’s relationship with NATO that does not gravitate around these fundamentals, is just political bickering, or something even worse.
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