Recalling that only a few years ago when he was deeply engrossed in negotiations paving the way for Malta’s EU accession, Minister Joe Borg was allegedly seriously considering closing the Malta Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – having just returned from a visit to the Kingdom as part of the Foreign & European Affairs Committee I couldn’t but realise the short sightedness of such a decision.

Good thing that this erroneous decision was reversed by Foreign Minister John Dalli, which was confirmed by current Minister Michael Frendo’s decision to keep the embassy alive and ticking.

The signal a decision to close the embassy would have sent to the whole Gulf area would have caused irreparable harm to our country’s image and evaluation of the geo-strategic importance of the region as a whole.

This is so particularly at a time when Saudi is projecting itself as a new Mideast peace broker so much so that various political analysts have even been claiming that its King Abdullah is looking to fill the vacuum left since the passing of Nasser – by mediating to resolve the region’s many problems.

Only last Friday the Gulf media reported a high ranking European Union diplomat in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, claiming that Saudi Arabia is emerging from behind the door.

Having led an export promotion Metco delegation to Saudi some 10 years back as Commerce and Finance Minister, this time round I found a new dynamism in the economic development as well as in the depth of the political analysis of the international situation by the eminent personalities that we met.

Bearing in mind that protocol entitled us to merely meeting our counterparts of the respective visiting countries’ foreign affairs committees in Saudi, Kuwait and the UAE, in Saudi alone we met among others the Transport Minister, with whom we discussed the possibility of work for our shipyards as well as the servicing of mega yachts by private Saudi owners; the chairman of their Parliament – the Ashura; the governor of Riyadh, who apart from being the brother of the Saudi King is one of the most highly respected politicians in the whole kingdom; as well as a most interesting personality – HH Prince Mohd bin Faisal bin Turki, who apart from currently heading the EU Directorate at the Saudi’s Foreign Ministry, worked closely with former long serving Saudi ambassador to the US Prince Bandar bin Sultan – who in turn is currently heading the Saudi’s intelligence network.

On the commercial side we not only had interesting discussions with the secretary general of their Chamber of Commerce but also met their High Commission of Investment, which operates under the name of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.

Our economic development over the years might have disqualified us from further benefit from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Develop-ment but they were quick to point out to us that Maltese construction sector consortia could be potentially interested in bidding for international tenders of theirs in various third countries, which they are currently assisting. These surprisingly also include countries like North Korea, which are reported to be experiencing economic hardship in present days.

When we were drawing up our list of appointments in the Gulf, I had shown particular interest in meeting the GCC – the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. When the Malta Embassy drew up our programme a meeting was arranged with Abdulrahman H. AL-attiyah, their secretary general.

The meeting was more than just a formality. We discussed at length the international situation in the Middle East, the pivotal role Israeli-Palestinian peace plays in the area as well as the Iran nuclear programme, which matter of concern they hope will be resolved by peaceful means as they fear dire consequences should resort be made to the military option. Both in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates they welcomed the point made in the Maltese Parliament that we should work for a nuclear free Middle East and that double standards should not be applied in this regard.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that in spite of Saudi’s concern about the strong push the Iranians are giving to the spread of the influence of the Shiite movement, relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are far better than one would have imagined.

Although relations between these two heavyweights have been bumpy at the best of times and have become more tense in recent months as Shiite-Sunni troubles have risen, trouble in Lebanon and Iraq has prompted these two giants to engage in frank new talks in an effort to head off regional crisis.

During our Gulf visit we came to learn that the clearest sign of the new diplomacy has been in Lebanon, where a joint Saudi-Iranian effort defused a general strike called by the pro-Iranian Shiite Hezbollah group after the country erupted into violence three weeks ago. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal has said the two countries began working together after Iran approached his country to cooperate in averting strife between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and Lebanon.

While, as I mentioned earlier, Malta had only but recently been considering closing its mission in Saudi, the Saudis informed us that 80 per cent of their visiting delegations hail from Europe. So much so that the Slovenian premier had just visited them officially, while last Saturday Russian President Putin was expected to start an official visit to the kingdom – a visit for which preparations were well underway while we were in Riyadh.

Our visit in Saudi coincided with the visit of the German chancellor who was hosted in the same state guesthouse where we were residing. It was interesting to note that even she called for negotiations with Iran and a possible peaceful solution to the impending crisis.

The general feeling I got from the countries we visited was that they expected a wider and stronger role from the EU in resolving pending conflicts.

Regarding the UAE there are many opportunities to be exploited in the commercial sector, while as in the case of Saudi there are also strong possibilities of cooperation in the medical sector, and education area – even within private sector frameworks.

What will be interesting to find out is how actively the Maltese government will be following up the various proposals that have been floated throughout our mission.

Both the Saudis and the Emirates officials made it clear that they expect clear cut and sharply identified proposals rather than mere platitudes of “closer cooperation”.

I personally believe that it is only through our actions and perseverance that we can really convince the governments and people of these countries that we really believe in the viability of a strategic partnership with these various key Gulf States.

It is all well and good to cooperate with the GCC within an EU framework but first of all we need to inject a new dynamism, at both the economic and political level to show that we are truly committed to strengthening our bilateral relations with these countries which are ever growing in importance. Both economically and strategically.

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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and IT and a member of the Standing Foreign & European Affairs Committee of the Maltese House of Representatives.