The paramount duty of the government – any government – is to ensure that its people are secure and safe, and that their liberty and economic well-being are assured. The government’s goal is to safeguard the freedom and territorial integrity of the Maltese Islands, and the ability of the Maltese people to pursue their legitimate interests at home and abroad. The government seeks to safeguard a range of interests – political, economic, trading and social. Its security policy, therefore, reflects the broader foreign policy and economic interests of Malta. It is designed to support and, if necessary, to defend them by any means at its disposal.
Security defined in this way is a broad concept. It is not simply a matter of military capability – ours is inevitably extremely limited – important though that may prove in the last resort. It encompasses the combined processes of multilateral international cooperation, preventive diplomacy, and the widest promotion of dialogue and understanding designed specifically to avoid ever having to use force. It includes three main elements: the reduction of the possibility of coercion or external threats against Malta’s territory or her vital national interests; the maintenance of the rule of law and internal order within our islands; and the creation and maintenance of peace and stability in the Mediterranean region within which to pursue Malta’s national interests.
It covers specific agreements with Malta’s friends and neighbours, providing for regular mechanisms for consultation, support and coordination, including such aspects of non-military security as drug-trafficking and illegal immigration, as well as the highly unlikely event of a direct threat to the Maltese Islands. (While we have recently heard of threats by Gaddafi to bomb or attack Europe – and it would clearly be prudent always to take such threats seriously − the realistic chances of this occurring must be rated as low).
Foreign and security policy must be based on a clear-minded analysis of the national interest. A successful foreign policy is an essential pre-requisite to an assured security policy. The security and defence policies of any state are rooted in perceptions of its interests and how best these may be protected and promoted. Malta’s security policies depend on its geo-strategic position and its political and economic structures. Our interests flourish best in a stable and peaceful world. Successive Maltese governments have sought stability through free cooperation and partnership with neighbouring states, both to the north of us and to the south, and membership of international organisations.
The bedrock of Malta’s security and economic well-being has depended on international friendship and co-existence, combined with other diplomatic and economic instruments. Cooperation is the basis of Malta’s security. There has always inevitably been a strong Euro-Mediterranean dimension to this security policy. History, geography and culture have seen to this. Successive Maltese governments have sought a Mediterranean framework for cooperation and security not only in vertical terms with the European Union, but also at the horizontal level among Mediterranean states. Recent events in North Africa, and most especially in Libya, have shown that the government intends, wisely, to continue along this path, and to build on it wherever possible.
The over-arching feature of Malta’s foreign and security policy, however, is its status as a neutral country within the European Union. Malta’s neutrality is central to its foreign and security policy. The policy of non-participation in military alliances was formally incorporated into the Constitution in 1987. It has served the country well – none more so than over the last five months since the outbreak of the civil war in Libya. Its aim is to reinforce the maintenance of peace and stability that has been achieved since Malta’s independence through a process of dialogue, friendship and cooperation, rather than confrontation.
Neutrality is the antithesis of confrontation. Malta’s geopolitical context gives its neutrality a uniqueness that cannot be compared with, or extrapolated from, the geographic, political or historic position of other neutral states, such as Ireland, Austria, Sweden or Finland. Malta’s commitment to neutrality and her geo-strategic position enables it to make a valid contribution to Euro-Mediterranean stability out of all proportion to its size, thus benefiting in the final analysis Malta’s own security. Although the European Union is the centrepiece of Malta’s foreign and security policy, the country’s neutrality enables it to anchor itself to the rest of Europe while still maintaining close ties with its neighbours. It is in our national interest, as we have seen with events in Libya, to be part of, and to be able through its bridge-building role, to contribute to the development of Europe’s common foreign and security policy.
The last few remarkable months have underlined clearly that the region we inhabit and in which we operate presents a picture of increased uncertainty and rapid change. The turbulence throughout North Africa, but most especially in Libya, has required a steady hand on the tiller. The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs (both of whom lost the plot so spectacularly in the divorce debate) have more than made amends in their handling of the Libyan crisis and the Arab Spring. For this is also a region populated by nations with which we trade successfully (in the case of Libya representing huge financial investments and many hundreds of Maltese jobs), and with whom we have close relations, friends and allies. How Malta has conducted itself in the crisis will have immediate as well as long-term consequences.
These are countries – including Libya − where it has been wise to act as good neighbours and where our perceived neutrality has been of enormous benefit. As the drama in Libya continues to unfold, it is extremely difficult to forecast the outcome with any degree of certainty. But it seems increasingly likely that the four-month Nato campaign will lead only to stalemate and to one of two scenarios: either, a divided country with Gaddafi clinging on at the helm in Tripolitania, with a new regime in Cyrenaica; or a united country under new leadership, with Gaddafi having been allowed to stand down.
Whatever the outcome – and we must hope that it is settled soon – it is in Malta’s self-interest to continue to foster good neighbourliness, even if it is at arm’s length with an unsavoury character like Gaddafi or anybody else who may replace him, and the continued promotion of the various political, economic, trading, humanitarian and cultural tools at our disposal. This is Malta’s best safeguard against the continued turbulence and instability in the region, which has the potential to affect our interests so adversely, even if Malta, as a neutral country, plays no direct military part in it. The government has to be vigilant in an uncertain world for any circumstances that could affect Malta’s territorial, economic or political interests. Thus far, Prime Minister Gonzi and Minister Borg have played their cards carefully and well.