Relations with the Western Balkans

The last standing reminder of what was once Federal Yugoslavia ceased to be on Sunday, May 21.

Following a referendum on the country's independence, Malta, last Monday expressed its intentions to extend full recognition to Montenegro as a sovereign independent state. This followed the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg where member states declared collectively they will henceforth deal with Montenegro as a sovereign state.

In line with the Strategic Objectives of Malta's Foreign Policy, the Western Balkans form an important part of our focus on Mediterranean neighbours, in this case neighbours who also belong in Europe.

Under many aspects, this growing attention towards our Balkan neighbours is both innovative and unprecedented. It is relevant to the present and to the future. We are building new relationships which are mutually beneficial on a bilateral level and particularly in the context of the EU and the Mediterranean fora.

Our deepening engagement with Croatia is a case in point. Official visits have been exchanged at foreign minister and at prime ministerial level. The President of Malta will be visiting Croatia later this year. Malta took an early stand supporting Croatia as a candidate for membership in the EU and, at one point, was one of a small number of voices asking for the bar not to be raised in relation to Croatian candidature.

Recent positive developments with Croatia can be a successful catalyst and influence to all other Western Balkan states. Croatia can be a trailblazer for other Western Balkans countries in their relations with the EU and a true tangible example of a European perspective in progress as Slovenia was before it.

The encouragement extended to Croatia stems out of the conviction that the country will make valid political, commercial and cultural contributions to an enlarged European family as well as out of the desire to see a strengthened dimension of peace and stability in the Western Balkan region.

On a bilateral level, the will to further strengthen relations by both sides was evidenced during my two visits to Zagreb in July 2005 and last April and that by Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic to Malta earlier this year.

As a result of my visits to Croatia, a framework for closer bilateral ties was established in the form of an agreement on cooperation between the two ministries of foreign affairs signed in Malta last March.

In commercial terms, Croatia is a promising partner that has, since declaring Independence in 1991, attracted the attention of European business communities. Last April, as part of my visit to Croatia, I led a successful commercial delegation of Maltese entrepreneurs from the tourism, infrastructure and ICT sectors.

There is another dimension to Malta's commitment to the Western Balkans - the humanitarian assistance and development aid aspect.

This was not so long ago manifested by the spirit of solidarity that was kindled among the Maltese people in the wake of the crisis in Kosovo in 1999. Maltese NGOs, notably SOS Malta, pioneered by those two indomitable and dedicated ladies Lilian Miceli Farrugia and Claudia Taylor East, extended assistance and worked on projects there and in Albania. Their work still has resonance in the area.

The successful experience in Kosovo is a concrete example of what Malta's overseas development policy intends to achieve. The policy will structure Malta's overseas development objectives and provide a framework for humanitarian assistance. It will be launched this month as a paper for discussion by civil society in particular.

The path that led Malta to membership of the EU is clearly a source of encouragement and vision to our Western Balkan neighbours. Like Malta, these are relatively small countries strategically placed on the periphery of mainland Europe. Malta capitalised on these characteristics that shape its distinctiveness and secured itself an equal placing with other European protagonists in international affairs.

The shifting dynamics in the Western Balkans must be kept in view. A European perspective for the region is the aspiration that can hold it together. Malta reflects that view in the positions it takes within the EU.

As the vestiges of the conflicting recent past slowly succumb to democratic trends, self-determination, economic liberalisation and European aspirations, the Western Balkans will find in Malta a friendly, responsive political interlocutor and a serious commercial partner.

Dr Frendo is Minister of Foreign Affairs.