Malta eyes delicate tightrope walk over Libya policy (News Feature)

By Herman Grech Mar 1, 2011, 2:07 GMT

Valetta, Malta - When Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi recently denounced embattled Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, he was merely echoing what many Western leaders had already said with harsher tones.

'The end of Gaddafi's rule is inevitable. If this doesn't happen, the territorial integrity of Libya will be jeopardized to the detriment of the Libyan people,' Gonzi said on Sunday.

But Gonzi's remarks went far beyond what any of the Mediterranean island-nation's leaders have dared to utter in the 42 years since Gaddafi seized power in Libya through a military coup, hinting at a new era of Libyan-Maltese relations

Although Malta has more in common with Europe, both culturally and historically - a bond cemented by European Union membership in 2004 - its geographic proximity to Libya has meant it has always trodden carefully with regard to the North African nation.

The ties go back to the 1970s, when the then prime minister, the fiery Dom Mintoff, forged a close friendship with Gaddafi, whose country's oil-generated funds helped Malta at a time when Mintoff wanted to close a British Royal Navy base that had long provided income for the island nation.

Malta's Foreign Minister Tonio Borg explains the government's change of heart this year in terms of the threats and opportunities presented by the wave of change sweeping not just Libya, but also Tunisia and Egypt, where demonstrators have already forced changes of leadership.

'The worst scenario is if this struggle were to continue for too long, creating instability in the area and affecting economic ties and investment in Libya,' Borg told the German Press Agency dpa.

'The fear of a civil war is real and such wars tend to be harsh and brutal. But we look forward with optimism towards a new North Africa which can engage better with the EU,' Borg added.

Still, it is a change in a relation that has been seen as extremely close in the past.

It was reported that, in 1986, the then Maltese premier Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici saved Gaddafi's life by giving him prior warning of a US air attack on Libya ordered by former US president Ronald Reagan as retaliation for alleged Libyan involvement in the bombing of a discotheque frequented by US troops in Berlin, Germany.

By the end of the last decade, trade links grew stronger. Successive Maltese governments also saw in Gaddafi the key to solving the problem of illegal immigration from Africa to Europe, one which often ended up on Malta's doorstep.

When, in 2009, Italy and Libya enacted a controversial 'push-back' agreement for the immediate deportation of would-be immigrants intercepted in international waters, arrivals on Malta's shores fell steeply, drawing a sigh of relief from the country's leaders.

The nature of Malta's relationship with Libya was so close that, just one week before the start of the uprising threatening to topple Gaddafi, the Libyan leader hosted Gonzi for talks.

But the relationship has not always been pure bliss.

In 1980, tempers flared across the Mediterranean in a territorial dispute which saw Libyan gunboats besieging an oil rig commissioned by the Maltese government.

Malta subsequently backed down and strong relations were promptly restored.

And now the relationship is being tested again.

The first sign that things were changing came on February 21, when two Libyan air force pilots defected from Gaddafi's military forces by flying their jets to Malta.

Subsequently, Malta - by then fast becoming the hub for the sea- and-air evacuation of expatriates working in Libya - refused landing permission to a plane sent by the Libyan government which was carrying pilots tasked with retrieving the two Mirage F1 fighter jets used by the defectors.

Citing former British prime minister's much quoted phrase: 'a week is a long time in politics,' Stephen Calleya, head of the Mediterranean Academy in Malta said the small island-nation has had to adapt to the circumstances and adopt a humanitarian role.

'Malta is acting in a realpolitik sense in its best interests. I wouldn't say we cosied up to Gaddafi in the past. We discussed with the Libyan government, like all Western governments did,' Calleya said.

Calleya said the government was now acting in line with the United Nations resolution that sanctioned Gaddafi for the use of force against civilians.

Favouring a more cautionary approach, Reno Calleja, who served as Malta's tourism minister in the 1980s, criticized Gonzi for saying that the end of Gaddafi's rule is inevitable.

'If he (Gaddafi) survives - and he is known to be a survivor - he will never forget what the Prime Minister of Malta, a close and friendly country, had to say about him when he was drowning,' Calleja warned.

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