Wikileaks: Government indicated willingness to sign SOFA agreement with US

 US Ambassador Douglas Kmiec reported in a diplomatic cable in January last year that during a wide-ranging discussion with the personal assistant (Chief of Staff) of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, the Government of Malta (GOM) indicated possible willingness to sign the "Agreement among the States parties to the North Atlantic Treaty and the other States participating in the Partnership for Peace regarding the status of their forces" (the PfP SOFA), and to provide training to Afghan civil servants in a yet to be specified curriculum in Malta.

SOFA establishes the rights and privileges of foreign personnel present in a host country, such as which country's court is competent to hear cases should military personnel be involved in crime in the host country.

Mr Kmiec said that during a regularly scheduled monthly meeting with Edgar Galea-Curmi, he was told that the government was still reviewing how to approach the SOFA issue, but that progress had been made.

According to Galea-Curmi, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg, who had been the primary opponent and chief skeptic of signing a SOFA (on political grounds), had, following extensive discussions with the Ambassador, recently dropped that opposition and agreed that the government should consider a SOFA "in some form or another."

What remained to be determined was what parameters the SOFA needed, and how Malta could meet U.S. "expectations."

Mr Galea-Curmi advised that Dr Borg would be in touch with Ambassador Kmiec to discuss these issues.

The Ambassador pointed out to Mr Galea Curmi that the proposed treaty document was sufficiently broad that many other countries had been able to accept it, including Russia, Croatia and - hopefully in the near future - another neutral EU State, Ireland. He stressed that this would be an opportunity to show, politically, that Malta was in charge of the SOFA process and not doing the U.S.'s bidding.

Mr Kmiec said that in some cases countries, signing the PfP SOFA and protocols have been done with reservations, but he cautioned that any reservations should not have the effect of rendering the document meaningless. Mr Galea-Curmi expressed his understanding of this point. He indicated that he would be in touch with Dr Borg and the Attorney General to determine what legislation would be necessary to implement the SOFA and indicated that he foresaw no difficulty with obtaining Parliamentary approval provided the political decision was made to go forward.

"The seeming willingness to consider signing the PfP SOFA represents a change in heart on the part of Malta. Both that dialogue and the broader public debate over the meaning of neutrality that was sparked by the Ambassador's public comments and a recent Op-Ed have helped strengthen the U.S.-Malta relationship by conveying to Malta that if it wishes to be an equal partner on the world stage, it must undertake the same obligations -- even if the scale is smaller, commensurate with Malta's resources -- as other similarly situated nations," Mr Kmiec wrote in his cable.