In what was something of a rarity, American Ambassador to Malta Molly Bordonaro was yesterday invested by President Eddie Fenech Adami as an Honorary Officer of the National Order of Merit on account of her work in Malta over her three-year plus term.
Yesterday’s occasion was preceded by just a small handful of similar occasions. Two former EU ambassadors to Malta – Giorgio Boggio and Ronald Galimore – had been similarly invested during the annual Republic Day ceremonies, while one offs such as yesterday’s were seen only when then EU enlargement commissioner Gunter Verheugen was given the award on Malta’s accession to the EU and Portuguese Interior Minister Rui Pereira upon Malta’s Schengen zone entry.
Speaking after yesterday morning’s solemn ceremony, Ms Bordonaro, who leaves Malta today, said she will be doing so “with a heavy heart”, after her and her family had grown to love Malta.
The feeling is very evidently reciprocated by large sections of Maltese society, not least of which due to her hard work in setting up what has now become a permanent refugee resettlement programme that has so far seen hundreds of Malta’s refugees being resettled in the US.
Yesterday’s citation lauded Ms Bordonaro for promoting international dialogue and bilateral relations, successfully seeing in Malta’s inclusion in the US Visa Waiver Programme, achieving the long-sought double taxation agreement, developing closer relations between the University of Malta and American universities, as well as for her assistance toward the development of a regional search and rescue facility run by the Armed Forces of Malta and the provision of training and equipment for the Customs Department.
Remarking how she and her family, who were in full attendance for yesterday’s ceremony, had made so many friends in Malta that the country has truly become “a home away from home”. She said the whole of the Bordonaro family were sad to be leaving the islands.
The Investiture Ceremony took place at The Palace in Valletta.
Since the commencement of her term in 2005, President Fenech Adami highlighted yesterday, Ms Bordonaro has greatly contributed to fostering and consolidating relations between Malta and the United States with several long-standing goals having been achieved over her term – the most significant of which were the Double Taxation Agreement and the Visa Waiver Programme for Maltese citizens travelling to the United States.
Over the past three years, he remarked, Ambassador Bordonaro has taken a personal interest and commitment towards the plight of immigrants seeking refugee and humanitarian status in Malta. Recognising that Malta alone cannot provide for the thousands of immigrants seeking refuge in Malta, she has worked for and secured a “special agreement”, without which Malta would not have been able to participate in the existing US Voluntary Resettlement Project – through which hundreds of refugees from Malta are provided permanent resettlement to the United States of America on an annual basis.
She has also been instrumental in securing the support of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in developing similar programmes for resettlement of Malta based refugees at European level.
Ambassador Bordonaro, he additionally noted, has actively encouraged the training of personnel of the Armed Forces of Malta at prestigious American institutions.
Meanwhile, through her personal intervention, US Coastguard trainers and American funding was secured for developing the Search and Rescue Centre of the Armed Forces of Malta into a regional centre of excellence for search and rescue and organising regular training for African and Mediterranean countries.
Ambassador Bordonaro, President Fenech Adami noted, has also been a source of constant support and encouragement in developing relations between the University of Malta and prestigious American universities, and through her efforts, Masters’ Programmes with James Madison University and San Diego University for Maltese students were established.
Her personal efforts have also seen a consolidation of commercial relations between Malta and the US, efforts that have seen the US government expanding its commercial operations at the embassy and the inclusion of an additional American officer to specially focus on attracting investment to Malta, while also committing herself to promoting Malta’s SmartCity project among American ICT companies.