Malta's foreign relations during the Mintoff era, 1971-1984

Abstract

On 21 September 1964, Malta gained the status of a sovereign nation-state within the Commonwealth after more than 160 years of British Colonial rule. For the first time in their history, the Maltese people gained the possibility of formulating and conducting their own foreign policy and thus establishing their own voice in international relations. From the very beginning, foreign policy was given priority as the Maltese leaders knew well enough that Malta's foreign relations were crucial for the development, welfare and prospects of the newly established micro-state. This study shows how the Maltese government from 1971 to 1984, under the leadership of Dom Mintoff, chose to approach the challenges that Malta - a micro-state strategically located at the centre of the Mediterranean Sea - had to face in international relations at a time when the world was witnessing the height of the Cold War. Under Dom Mintoff, the Malta Labour Party first pursued Integration with Britain in the 1950s, but due to lack of success, then followed the strategy of several anti-colonial movements and started seeing independence as the ultimate objective. Once independence was achieved, economic viability, relevance in international relations and security for Malta became the main objectives of the two Nationalist administrations (1962 - 1966, 1966-1971) and the subsequent ones under the Labour Party (1971 - 1976, 1976 - 1981, and 1981 -1984 ). Mintoff, however, did not share the pro-Western views of the previous Nationalist administration and was determined to adopt a more independent line. He aimed to approach Malta's challenges by pursuing a neutral and non-aligned policy vis-a-vis the Western and Eastern alliances within a policy which stressed Malta's Mediterranean aspect. As Stephen C. Calleya puts it, throughout the Cold War, 'Neutrality and the Non-Aligned Movement became the buzzwords of Malta's foreign policy agenda with close relations established with the likes of China and the Arab World'.