Malta's foreign policy strategy was announced on Wednesday by the Minister for Foreign and European Affairs, Evarist Bartolo.

Bartolo said that this strategy is essential. In whatever circumstances we are going through, such as dealing with the pandemic or climate change, Malta cannot live on its own. It needs to establish and nurture relationships with other countries, and keep working on improving them on a regular basis, Bartolo said.

Permanent secretary Christopher Cutajar said that the strategy was drawn up after public consultation, giving ample time for diplomatic members to participate in the process.

In the development of the strategy, Vincent Marmara, a statistician and researcher by profession, was engaged to perform a study to assess the information and the views of the general Maltese public on matters related to international policy.

The study was conducted through a survey via telephone interviews. The sample size was a total of 800 Maltese individuals aged 16 years and over. Such data was collected in October 2021.

One of the questions asked was on views of how vital Malta's role is in the world, where a majority of 30.7%, from a scale of 1-5, marked three, meaning that they have a neutral view. Those who replied to the same question by indicating scale 1, which is the most negative answer that could be given according to the scale, said they thought Malta's role was not important because the country is too small.

Another question assessed whether the Ministry for Foreign and European affairs has great importance in influencing Malta's reputation. On this question, a total of 54.7% said that it did.

The policy has been moulded with three strategic goals in mind.

The first one is to support Maltese citizens' values, well-being, and prosperity. As an independent state, Malta commits itself to look after Maltese citizens' well-being and wealth, including those living abroad. 

Amongst the objectives for this goal are the supporting of connections between Maltese individuals/organisations, including those found abroad and in international counterparts; to provide protection of Malta's interests and promote Malta's brand, and to work with partners internationally to build on recent progress concerning the enforcement of the rule of law, with particular focus on anti-corruption and anti-money laundering measures.

The second goal is to promote peace, security and dialogue. Malta having a neutral status as a nation, is working to improve a rules-based international system as the foundation on which peace for Maltese citizens is secured. This is the only way to respond to challenges all nation-states come across, especially small ones like Malta.

Some of the objectives to sustain this goal include the promotion of people-to-people connectedness through cultural diplomacy initiatives; to develop relationships of a closer nature with neighbouring countries, with a special focus on stability and security in Africa and the Euro-Med region; to engage in bilateral, multilateral and multi-stakeholder debates on matters of mutual interest.

The last goal talks about how Malta should maximise opportunities for influence in strategic regions and multilateral fora. As the country excels in trust partnerships with all countries, it is believed that it can develop a resilience shield for when troubled times hit, in terms of geographic regions which are of interest.

The planned objectives to achieve such a goal include advocating for Malta's governance interests, prioritising and delivering programs of international institutions; to developing framework policies that are regional for other strategic regions and continents, including the Gulf and the Asia-Pacific.