Any ray of hope that balances the temptation to despair over the Middle East and the Caucasus, in Darfur and now Thailand, must be welcomed with open hearts and minds.
Three such rays have shone upon the Mediterranean: an improving dialogue between countries working towards an EU-Mediterranean union; the recent visit to Libya of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the agreement reached there for Italy to provide billions of dollars in investment; and, today, the first visit to Libya of a US Secretary of State in more than five decades. Who remembers John Foster Dulles?
Sour is not the word to describe what relations between Libya and the West generally and between Libya and the United States and the UK in particular were after the destruction of PanAm Flight 103 and the bombing of a Berlin disco. Prior to that and later, Libya had made no effort to conceal the fact that it was aiding terrorist organisations like the IRA in Northern Ireland and others closer home. US aircraft bombed Tripoli in 1986. Libya was regarded as a pariah state and sanctions applied against it.
Meanwhile, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which never stopped, continued to attract world attention. Libya and the US were in opposite camps on this seemingly perennial issue. Then, in 2001 along came 9/11 and, as it was said at the time, the world was never to be the same again. The so-called war on terror began and continues to this day but in 2003 there was a major breakthrough in Libyan-western relations when Tripoli announced it would stop pursuing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Perhaps this was the greatest achievement in the wake of the war on Iraq. Sanctions were dropped and, slowly, Libya opened itself to western investment once more as the US removed that country from its terrorism blacklist.
Not that there has been no mistrust since then but the good news is that the normalisation of relations is steadily improving. Closer links are now being forged after having been stalled for years. The agreement signed between Mr Berlusconi and Muammar Gaddafi can only help to strengthen links but realists admit that there is some way to go before Libya and the West can breathe easily in each other's company.
Condoleeza Rice's trip to Libya, followed by visits to the Maghreb countries and Portugal before she flies back to Washington, is being seen at the Department of State as "a historic step". It is hoped that agreement will be reached once and for all over the Lockerbie-Berlin-Tripoli violence. It is also being touted as "an example" of "a different kind of relationship with the US" if countries "make a different set of choices than they are currently making" - a clear reference to Iran.
A fly remains in the ointment. Malta can, of course, only be delighted that Libya has returned to the comity of nations. With other EU countries, however, it continues to look towards Libya to make more of an effort to control the flow of illegal immigrants from its shore, to cooperate more fully with the EU on an issue that affects Malta so directly.
Mr Berlusconi, Ms Rice, before she moves on to Tunisia, and, indeed, President Eddie Fenech Adami, when he was in Libya last month, no doubt emphasised Libya's responsibility in this affair. Malta anxiously waits to see that Libya did not only hear but also listened to what was being said to it.