The Malta Labour Party is complaining about the fact that Malta reapplied to join the Partnership for Peace Programme so soon while not even Parliament has yet been convened. Labour is arguing that the subject should have been discussed in Parliament first.

Facts show that the Nationalist Party applied to rejoin the programme on Thursday, March 20, 2008, 12 full days after the election date. Labour pulled Malta out of the PfP on October 29, 2006, precisely three days after the election date. George Vella, then minister for foreign affairs, flew to Brussels to pull us all out of the PfP while Labour supporters were still celebrating the election result in the streets. Such was the speed of the Labour Party's action. So what is it complaining about now?

Is the MLP comfortable with the fact that each time military matters are discussed within Nato-EU, up comes the Turkish representative to send Malta out of the conference hall together with the Cypriot delegation? Do we really have to continue being humiliated by a non-EU country? Perhaps Dr Vella should go and have a word with the Maltese soldiers who are looking forward to again sharing their skills with other armies, an opportunity that only lasted a year before the Labour government killed such an opportunity.

Malta and the Armed Forces of Malta are proud to have rejoined the league of nations that also involves Switzerland (that incidentally joined the PfP the same day MLP pulled Malta out!) and Russia to mention a few.

All this while Labour expected the Maltese to believe their "New Beginning" ideas were anything new. Nothing new on this matter, except that the next new thing we will all have will be a new Labour Party leader. One hopes the latter will have the courage to take the party into a more modern, sensible direction and stop thinking with a Cold War mentality in this new millennium which is already eight years old!