The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken exception to a blog written by Dr Simon Mercieca on this portal about the relations between Malta and Libya.
In a right of reply to the article Malta, Libya and USA, the ministry explains that Malta does not seek the backing of any other country to visit a third country, as alleged by the author.
This is the right of reply, sent by the ministry’s Foreign Affairs communications coordinator Etienne St John, in full:
It is obvious that the author is under the mistaken idea that the National Unity Government is the same government that had hitherto been referred to as the Tripoli Government. In fact, the author alleges that “The Maltese delegation ended up visiting that part of Tripoli which our Maltese Government, till recently, was refusing to acknowledge.” The National Unity Government, led by Fayez Serraj, and the National Salvation Government (the so-called Tripoli Government), led by Khalifa Ghwell, are two completely different entities. This confusion in the author’s argumentation is further proved when he alleges that “this newly appointed UN Government in Libya is now represented in Malta by the Libyan Embassy at Attard.”
The author also speculates that “it is now very clear, that there is a split between the line of policy that George Vella wants to adopt and the one that Castille wants to follow.” It might be more than a mere coincidence for your publications to carry a conjecture that had originally been made up, and repeated ad nauseam, by the Medialink publication “il-Mument”!
The author should also note that since Malta is a sovereign State, its government does not seek the backing of any other government in deciding to visit a third country. The author’s allegation that the visit by the Maltese Prime Minister and I was “on the verge of diplomatic collapse” is either the result of his fruitful imagination or a reflection of his irritation at seeing the Maltese government’s efforts in contributing to the solution of such a delicate regional issue being given due recognition by the international community.
To further demonstrate his imaginative flair, Dr Mercieca finally alleges that the current American administration “is more than ready to support the Labour Party in its next election, as it clearly did in 2013”. It does not augur well for the Nationalist Party, of which Dr Mercieca is a leading exponent, to continue to live in denial of the reasons why the Maltese electorate so clearly chose the Labour Party in 2013 and to attribute such a result to the interference of the US government, which has proven its friendliness to Malta, whether led by a Nationalist or a Labour administration, particularly in resettling migrants from Malta.