Frendo to insist on call for Euro-Arab foreign ministers' meeting

Europe would be missing a major strategic and political opportunity and commiting a serious mistake if a meeting proposed by Malta grouping European and Arab foreign ministers did not come about, Foreign Minister Michael Frendo has warned.

Speaking in Parliament at the end of a foreign policy debate, Dr Frendo underscored Malta's role and commitment to improving links between the EU and Arab countries.

On Malta's initiative, one of the items on the agenda of an EU foreign ministers' meeting this month will be the initiation of a structured dialogue between the EU and the Arab League.

"I can say there are some countries that are in favour of Malta's initiative, some are indifferent and some are against, but we cannot be conditioned by these things. We have the courage of our convictions and at this month's meeting I will say that if Malta's initiative in the EU is not accepted and the proposed EU-Arab foreign ministers' meeting does not come about, Europe would be missing an opportunity of major historic and strategic importance and committing a serious mistake. We cannot be cowed by some country which may be scared of this initiative, fearing, perhaps, that it would not go down well with Israel."

Dr Frendo said some were arguing that such an initiative should be held in the context of the Euro-Med process. But it was amply clear that Arab countries were keen to work with the EU and the EU needed to react to this interest.

It was good that the EU was holding dialogue with Asian and Latin American countries, but in the context of its neighbourhood policy, surely it should also be talking to the Arab countries? Nothing could be more obvious. If there were problems, then there was even more reason to talk, Dr Frendo said.

Dr Frendo said a visit he had made recently to Algeria had gone ahead despite bomb attacks in that country a couple of days earlier. He wanted to show how Malta was against terrorism and wanted stability in north Africa. This fact had been deeply appreciated by the Algerian authorities, as evidenced by his two-hour meeting with that country's foreign minister.

He said several visits he had made to Tunisia over the past few months reflected the good relationship between the two countries. Dr Frendo said Malta was increasingly being viewed as a country that, as a member of the EU, could speak up in the Union to further ties with other commercial and political blocs.

EU membership was also helping Malta improve its attractiveness as an investment destination .

He said a planned visit to India had been postponed because of circumstances beyond his control but he hoped he would soon be heading a business delegation to that country, as he had to many others.

Referring to his recent visit to China as the head of a large business delegation, Dr Frendo said that on his own insistence, every member of the delegation had made a presentation. As a result, the visit was replete with important contacts with senior Chinese officials. That visit was yet another example of the tangible way how foreign policy was conducted, with important impacts on economic affairs.

Referring to opposition remarks earlier in the debate, Dr Frendo said the government's decision to take Malta into the EU had been a huge success. That the MLP now agreed with membership was welcome, but the MLP still had a huge problem with its grass roots, which had been fed all the wrong reasons against EU membership and were now being told everything was fine.

Not joining the EU would have meant bypassing a real opportunity to give Malta greater political and commercial relevance. Malta was small, but it was one of the most successful small states in the world. It had no cause to bow its head in shame. What was shameful was how sections of the international media tried to belittle or denigrate Malta, particularly with regard to illegal migration. Far from being insensitive, Malta did its best to help migrants in distress, but it was the duty of the international community and the UNHCR to help Malta and recognise that it was a special case that needed particular solutions and special help.

Dr Frendo said he was pleased to note that there was convergence between the government and the opposition on several foreign policy issues, including the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist in peace and have their own respective states.

Other points of convergence were relations with China and the consensus that had now been reached on the EU.

While establishing itself within the EU, Malta, over the past few years had also continued to strengthen its status as a Mediterranean country and, significantly, had won the right to host the Secretariat of the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. This assembly was of great importance to the Mediterranean, especially now that French President Sarkozy was speaking on the concept of a Mediterranean Union.

This proposal, Dr Frendo said, should be looked at seriously. The government had immediately indicated to Mr Sarkozy that Malta would give particular consideration to such a concept. When foreign minister, President Emeritus Guido de Marco had also proposed the creation of a Mediterranean body on the lines of the CSCE.

Malta was also committed to launching the concept of a Central Mediterranean Economic Forum. Strong interest had already been expressed by Tunisia, Libya and Sicily.

Dr Frendo said Malta would also continue working within the Commonwealth, having gained a certain momentum within this organisation after hosting the Commonwealth summit. He had made several interventions in the EU to urge the Development Commissioner to work with the Commonwealth on issues of good governance.

He denied claims by the leader of the opposition, outside the House, that his nomination for the post of secretary general of the Commonwealth was affecting his work as foreign minister.

Turning to oil exploration, Dr Frendo said talks were continuing with Libya, Tunisia and Italy on the delineation of exploration areas and he hoped they would shift from the technical to a political level so that solutions could be found.

In his speech Dr Frendo augured that more debates would be held on areas of foreign policy, pointing out that there had been occasions when debates could not be held because opposition MPs could not attend.

Among MPs who spoke before the minister was opposition foreign affairs spokesman Leo Brincat (who was reported yesterday).

Mr Brincat referred to the recent ship-boarding agreement reached with the United States, pointing out that apart from the fact that no statement on this had yet been made in Parliament, the Opposition had not even been given a copy of the agreement. The only thing that he had been told was that it was modelled on the Cyprus-USA shipboarding agreement without being informed where and how much it differed.

Furthermore, while the foreign minister had informed the Foreign Affairs Committee that it had not yet been decided whether the agreement would need to be ratified by Parliament the US Ambassador seemed to know more than the Opposition on the issue since she had said that she hoped that this would shortly be ratified by the Maltese Parliament.

Mr Brincat said that while the MLP gave importance to strengthening bilateral relations with the USA, he was being given the impression that the opposition was being kept in the loop of Malta-US security arrangements only where this was unavoidable and he was not excluding that other arrangements could have been worked out behind the Opposition's and the general public's back.

Mr Brincat also observed that with regard to illegal immigration, the government had failed to obtain any expressions of tangible solidarity from any of the countries surrounding Malta.