Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today addressed the first UN World Humanitarian Summit, meeting in Istanbul.

He said Malta was leading by example on the migrants issue, having accepted to take in migrants under the EU's burden sharing arrangement, now that it did not have a crisis of its own, even though it had been left to fend for itself in the past.

Malta was acting in this way because it firmly believed that solidarity is not a la carte - to be sought only when one needed it, while ignoring others who may also need it.

Dr Muscat regretted that it had taken so long for such a summit to convene to discuss humanitarian issues.

He added that Malta had long insisted that no country should be left on its own, because this was not the problem of a single country or region, but a world problem.

He stressed that global action was needed not just on migration, but other issues such as the consequences of climate change.