Malta’s foreign policy has not changed very much as the government aligning with Europe over Ukraine while refusing to provide weapons aid to Ukraine due “neutrality” and also opposing the use of frozen Russian assets for opportunistic and populist reasons under the pretenses of risk and war.
Malta is acting similarly to Greece on its national security policy and foreign affairs: it nominally supports the EU’s positions but when it is faced with the prospect of making serious commitments to contribute to Europe’s collective foreign policy, Malta backtracks and seeks its “national interests” such as it is doing with the Trump dividend. Malta is expecting the UN Charter to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity while Malta is refusing to make serious commitments to defend international law.
This naïve Maltese opportunism in foreign policy is quite evident with the concerns being raised by Labour MPs. If we were to dispense of all diplomatic pretenses the equivalent Maltese foreign policy position was to tell Venezuelans that Nicolas Maduro had to remain in power for the sake of preserving the legal precedents that are supposedly defending Malta’s territorial integrity.
The Maltese government is deluding itself as it as an advocate for the international rules-based order. Along with these delusions, there is also the disingenuous push that diplomatic talks, engagement and advocacy will lure China in the international rules-based order.
Dom Mintoff lost all his beautiful diplomatic creations, engagement, advocacy and talk, in the moment that Muammar Gaddafi and Mintoff had a dispute over the maritime demarcation and Gaddafi sent his military vessels to push back Maltese fishermen from what Libya was declaring to be its territory.
There was a time in the 1990s and early 2000s when talking about peace and diplomacy in hotel conference halls of major capital cities seemed to represent a new era of WTO agreements and the blossoming of cooperation within the United Nations. When the crime rates are low, it is easy to talk about peace and prosperity: the bed is made.
Now, Malta expects the world to go back in time and the government is deluding itself in thinking that somehow, talking very strongly in international fora about world peace will ensure our security and the return to the 1990s.
The Labour government has a very serious issue with its foreign policy because it is precondition with principles of the past of a world that no longer exists. This world is not going to come back, at least not any time soon nor in the next ten years to come. European leaders are becoming ever more aware that the age of imperialism is back and for this reason they are pursuing further unity and strength in European foreign policy and security. Malta has decided to opt out of this process because of “neutrality”, populism and also some delusion.
Now, Malta risks being left out of a new and emerging European set-up of collective unity and strength in the face of imperialism and belligerence. This means that Malta is not engaging with the new European set-up that is actually meant to defend the international-rules based-order. In fact, on European security, the Labour Party is very much aligned with the European far-right in its opposition to the re-militarisation of Europe.
Ironically, in principle, our Foreign Affairs Minister is very much in a position similar to the US Secretary of State with regard to his colleagues: his position is more aligned with western values and a realistic awareness of the dangers posed by Russia and China, than their colleagues which have adopted very different positions. On the other hand, Minister Borg can’t consistently and successfully keep his nominal support for Europe’s positions, if Malta is consistently refusing to contribute to the emerging European foreign and security set-up.
Old-fashioned socialist ideologues have to swallow hard truths such as that sovereignty and defence are not guaranteed by the words and treaties of dictators. Maltese sovereignty will not be safeguarded by giving nice speeches at a hotel conference hall in Paris, London or in New York. Malta needs to have a very strong defence and security policy that is independent of other countries and international law: not because this is ideal but because this is the reality that we live in. On the other hand, we also have to join forces with Europe to build our energy stability and security: effectively having a two-pronged layered plan that addresses security both in isolation and in connection with our allies and partners. Being part of the European defence network would actually further secure our sovereignty especially with regard to new and emerging security risks but we also have to ensure that we can deal with situations ourselves without any help.
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Historian and Publisher
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