The way has been cleared for Maltese soldiers to participate in Nato activities, almost a year after the island reactivated its application to join the alliance's Partnership for Peace Programme.
Nato sources in Brussels said yesterday Malta's Individual Partnership Programme (IPP) - detailing how the island will be participating and in which areas - had just been approved.
The two sides have also agreed on the establishment of a Maltese Permanent mission to Nato.
This was confirmed by a government spokesman who said Malta nominated Clive Agius, the Maltese Ambassador to Belgium residing in Brussels, as its proposed ambassador to the military organisation. His nomination is expected to be officially recognised by Nato in the coming weeks.
The spokesman said that Malta's IPP, which was presented to the Maltese Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs last January, indicated the scope, pace and level of Malta's participation in cooperation activities with Nato.
It specifies that the island will be particularly interested in humanitarian and search and rescue activities.
Following the conclusion of this bureaucratic process, Maltese soldiers would now be able to take part in PfP activities, including training exercises.
Malta had originally joined the PfP in 1995 and withdrew a year later after Labour was elected to government. Following the last general election, the government made a request to reactivate Malta's participation.
According to the government, Malta's main reasons for re-joining PfP were more of a political than a military nature. Due to its lack of any form of association with Nato, Malta, as an EU member state, was not able to participate in regular meetings between the EU and Nato. Maltese officials had to leave the meeting room when Turkey, a member of Nato but not of the EU, objected to the presence of Malta and Cyprus, also a non-member, when certain classified information was being discussed.
Malta is now participating fully in Nato-EU meetings and so has access to all the classified information that the other EU member states are privy to.
All EU countries, apart from Cyprus, are either Nato or PfP members.
Nato's Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council was set up in 1997 and provides the overall political framework for the alliance's cooperation with partner countries.