Of revisionism

In his contribution entitle Of Staleness And Vision, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Michael Frendo, wrote about the recently launched policy document entitled Strategic Objectives Of Malta's Foreign Policy.

What I had to say about this policy document I did during the meeting of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee held in camera some weeks ago in Parliament.

I am not going to discuss the contents of this document here, but I have to register my astonishment at the fact that the minister is giving the impression that this is the first time ever there has been such a policy document about Malta's foreign policy.

In fact, in his contribution the minister says: "In 22 months of Labour government between 1996 and 1998, there was enough time to produce such a document to give greater focus and stronger direction to Malta's foreign policy. The direction we got then was the freezing of Malta's application for membership of the European Union. That was truly a strategy built on poor vision certainly not beneficial to Malta".

Leaving opinions aside, the minister should know for a fact that, whereas his party is coming out with its first-ever foreign policy document now, after all these years in government, the Malta Labour Party has long had its foreign policy document.

Dr Frendo knows, or at least should know, that in the early 1990s, the MLP produced a foreign policy document, which was approved by the party's institutions and was implemented and adhered to the moment we were in government.

Let me remind my esteemed colleague Dr Frendo that our policy document went far beyond the sole issue of membership or otherwise of the European Union.

It covered our foreign policy's basic principles, our commitment to fundamental rights and the process of democracy, social justice and the protection of the environment and the natural resources, the growth of prosperity, our future relations with Europe, our Mediterranean policy, and our relations with other countries.

The document covered also our relations with the United Nations. Special attention was given in the document to the particular problems we were facing in the Mediterranean region, and policy guidelines on such issues as Islamic fundamentalism, the issue of the Median Line between neighbouring countries and the question of UN sanctions are spelt out clearly.

The document also covered the question of national security, tackling it from its holistic aspect, both military and non-military, meaning economic, social, humanitarian and ecological aspects.

This was done within the context of our relations with the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union, and our future Mediterranean policy.

Other chapters dealt with the policy concerning diplomatic representation and the diplomatic corps, the importance of information and transparency in foreign policy mostly through more parliamentary debates and also the importance to be given to Maltese communities abroad.

If Dr Frendo could find the time to go through this document I am sure that he will find he is in full agreement with the contents, with the exclusion of the section about the future relations with the European Union, of course, and that most of the basic principles underlying our foreign policy are equally emphasised and professed both in the MLP's foreign policy document as well as in his recent Strategic Objectives document.

I have a hunch that the minister may have missed reading our foreign policy document when it was made public, because at that time his party tried to rubbish it by saying that our (the MLP's) foreign policy document was nothing more than an exercise depending on the "pulling of strings from Libya"...part of a strategy by the Nationalist Party which, in those times, denigrated anything dealing or having to do with Libya.

Thankfully, times have changed now, and we are pleased to see our political opponents bending over backwards to please our Libyan neighbours.

Given this changed scenario, and knowing the good contacts my colleague has with our southern neighbours, during his next visit there, I ask him to inquire whether what his party used to say about our "strings from Libya" foreign policy was true or not.

Knowing Dr Frendo to be a gentleman, I have no doubts he will not hesitate to make public his finding on this matter...and also to acknowledge that the MLP produced its foreign policy document before it took government in 1996, years before the Nationalist Party produced its first-ever foreign policy document.

Dr Vella is a Labour MP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Environment.