A rather curious fact emerged from the parliamentary question session this evening. In one of the more obscure PQ's buried at the bottom of the list was a question put by opposition MP Mario Galea. Mr Galea asked Minister for Social Solidarity Michael Farrugia whether it was true that a Chinese delegation had paid a visit to the Mellieha Residence for the Elderly and its Day Centre.

Minister Farrugia confirmed that indeed, a Chinese delegation did pay a visit after the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between the Malta UN International Institute of Ageing and the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau.

Meanwhile, opposition MP Antoine Borg asked Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech about a Labour Party delegation meeting to China and whether any deals were signed in the context of Malta's Presidency of the European Union in 2017. Mr Grech said that he was sure that the MP on the other side of the house could distinguish between govertnment work and the work of a political party. "As a result, I will not be answering this question.