James Debono The Maltese government said it finds no difficulty in providing non-military assistance to the NATO-led operations in Afghanistan, as recently requested by the US ambassador Douglas Kmiec.
“The government of Malta finds no difficulty in considering non-military assistance in the future such as the training of public servants,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said.
The spokesperson insisted that Malta is already assisting operations in Afghanistan as members of the European Union. “Malta has already contributed a modest sum to the EU operations in Afghanistan, and this issue is not related to the country’s neutrality”.
MaltaToday is informed that Malta’s contribution amounts to some “hundreds of thousands of euros.”
Despite Ambassador Kmiec’s recent overtones in the press, Malta has not yet received any formal request for assistance in the Afghan campaign.
“Once we receive an official request, Malta might consider non-military assistance,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Speaking a day after US President Barack Obama announced an increase in the total number of US troops in Afghanistan to 100,000 by mid-2010, Kmiec requested Malta’s help. “Malta has the neutrality clause in its Constitution and we respect that. However, Malta can contribute by teaching agriculture skills to the Afghan people or contribute through development assistance, civilian training and aspects of good governance. Malta’s contribution would be entirely non-military.”
Last Sunday, Kmiec warned that Malta “must not allow an interpretation of the scope of a constitutional neutrality provision to be taken advantage of by those who might wish to use a Maltese port to unleash a future terror plot.”
His reference to terrorism brought a reaction from former foreign minister Michael Frendo, who insisted that Malta always took a firm stand against terrorism. “It would have only been an issue if Malta wavered in its stance.”
Frendo also agreed with Malta’s participation in peacekeeping missions like the one in Lebanon. But he made a clear distinction between peacekeeping in Lebanon to enforce the truce with Israel, and a US-led mission in Afghanistan, which Frendo regards as “an attack on the Taliban.” But he did not exclude non-military participation in such missions.
Frendo reiterated his position that neutrality should be reviewed because circumstances have changed since the introduction of the clause, which is constitutionally framed in terms of equidistance from the two Cold War superpowers.
“Keeping equidistance is nonsensical when today we do not have two superpowers but one superpower and a number of great powers,” Frendo said.
He added that this did not necessarily mean abandoning neutrality, which essentially requires not having a military base in Malta and not participating in any military alliance.
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