Agreeing that certain aspects of the Constitution on neutrality were "anachronistic" and needed "re-wording", Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday that if the opposition wanted to discuss these amendments, the government was "all ears".
Dr Borg was reacting to acting Labour leader Charles Mangion's statement that the MLP was willing to hold a "frank discussion" on neutrality, following comments made by former Foreign Minister Michael Frendo.
Speaking to The Times, Dr Borg said that if "the Labour Party is really intent on changing certain aspects of the Constitution which need to be changed in the light of a changing global reality, the government is all ears".
He said he personally believed that the provisions on neutrality in the Constitution were anachronistic and had been overcome by events. There was, for instance, a specific reference to two superpowers.
When this matter was being discussed in Parliament in February 1987, Eddie Fenech Adami, who at the time was Opposition Leader, had drawn attention to the fact that superpowers might cease to exist and that Malta would be binding itself too closely to a particular international political situation.
The then Labour government had ignored Dr Fenech Adami's advice and gone ahead with the Constitution as it stands today, he said.
"We are not particularly annoyed with this provision. We agree there should be no military base in Malta and we should not form part of any military alliance." The Partnership for Peace, which Malta has applied to rejoin, is not such an alliance, he added.
"There are parts of the Constitution that need to be re-worded in the light of modern developments. That provision was introduced during the Cold War and, since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge.
"The Cold War is no longer, the political map of Europe has changed with the Baltic States, not only in the EU but also in Nato, and Malta also joined the EU. It would be reasonable to adjust those provisions to the realities of today," he said.
"I think it is positive the MLP is willing to discuss neutrality because it shows it has now realised that the political scenario and the realities in Europe have changed.
"The Maltese have accepted not once but twice Malta's EU membership and these provisions, although we can live with them, should reflect these realities."
Meanwhile, a decision on Malta's application to join the Partnership for Peace programme (PfP) will be taken during a summit for member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation - Nato - a military alliance of democratic states in Europe and North America.
This summit, the 22nd of its kind, will be held in Bucharest, Romania, between tomorrow and Friday.
The Partnership for Peace is a programme of practical bilateral cooperation between individual partner countries and Nato. It allows partner countries to build up an individual relationship with Nato, choosing their own priorities for cooperation. Malta already formed part of the programme in 1995 but when Labour was elected to office in 1996, it immediately withdrew.