EU-Arab League Liaison Office should become focal point for regional dialogue - minister

Malta will be lobbying for the EU-Arab League Liaison Office to become the focal point for regional dialogue and cooperation, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said this morning.

The liaison office is situated in Malta.

Opening a round table conference on the repercussions of the Arab Spring, organised by the University's International Policy and Leadership Institute, Dr Borg said that Malta, because of its location in the centre of the Mediterranean and the cross-fertilisation of cultures, was an ideal spot for such a centre.

Malta's DNA was firmly within Europe but it also had a strong Mediterranean vocation.

He listed some of the regional initiatives Malta was a part of and pointed out that the first regional meeting for the Alliance for Civilisations had been held in Malta.

The minister told the conference, which brought together a number of policy experts, academics and students from Mediterranean states, that the union for the Mediterranean, despite its praiseworthy objectives, had perhaps been slightly naive in ignoring the political realities of its member states.

He said that projects could not set aside the lack of progress in establishing a Palestinian state, for example.

The west should not fear Islamic democracies, he said, pointing to Turkey as a democracy inspired by Islamic principles.

Arab governments, he said, would not be judged on their labels but on their actions.