Malta’s 30 ambassadors overseas did a very good job, “except for a few exceptions”, Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella said yesterday.
Not mentioning names, he called on those not pulling their weight to get their act together without him having to take action.
Dr Vella was speaking during the second day of the annual ambassadors’ meeting, at the Hotel Excelsior, during which foreign policy is being reviewed and experiences shared.
He acknowledged that some countries offered more opportunities than others but he expected the same level of effort from all ambassadors, whose role was to be the “eyes, ears and mouthpiece of Malta” and to work to promote investment.
Your role is to be the eyes, ears and mouthpiece of Malta
He asked ambassadors not to hand in voluminous reports because he did not have time to read them all. If they felt the need to go into detail, they should also submit a summary.
More importantly, he said he wanted to read about their personal observations and not “cut and paste” articles from the media.
Speaking about political direction, Dr Vella said Malta had an excellent relationship with several EU countries, the US, Russia and China. Malta would keep offering support to Libya, especially when it came to border control and the setting up of institutions, and hoped to continue working with the new government on migration.
The Ukraine-Russia issue, high on the EU agenda, did not impact Malta directly on an economic level because only two per cent of the country’s GDP would be affected by any sanctions Brussels might want to impose on Russia.
He said he recently had an exchange with the Russian deputy foreign affairs minister who accused Malta of leaning towards the “extremist” countries pushing for sanctions. Dr Vella said the matter was resolved when he explained that the island adopted a cautious stance.
Dr Vella said he recently had a heated discussion with the general secretary of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which did a lot within Europe to bring safety and cooperation, and he expressed his view that the OSCE was not doing enough in North Africa now and during the Arab Spring.
A few weeks later, he was informed that the OSCE wanted to set up a centre in Malta to train consultants, senior staff and officials. Representatives would soon be coming over to see office space that would allow them to be closer to the “scene of action”.
The OSCE is the largest regional security organisation in the world with 55 participating countries from Europe, Central Asia and North America.