Foreign Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo will on Tuesday discuss Malta’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council during a meeting with his Russian counterpart. 

Bartolo is in Sochi, Russia, to hold talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. 

It is understood the talks are intended to discuss a number of bilateral issues between the two countries, not least of which is Malta’s wish for a temporary seat at the UN’s top table for matters of global security. 

The Security Council is one of the UN’s six main organs. It includes five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the UK and US – and 10 non-permanent members that are elected from various regional groups for two-year terms.

Malta is a candidate for one of two such seats that will be available for 2023 and 2024. So far, only Malta and Switzerland have submitted a bid for those two seats, allocated to the western states.

A high-level UN vote on the matter is due to be held next year, in June 2022.

Each Security Council member has a vote, but only the five permanent members have veto powers. 

Bartolo’s visit to Russia comes at an awkward time, with the diplomatic distance between EU member states and Russia growing in recent days after a dissident journalist was arrested in Belarus after his flight was forced to land in Minsk.

While the EU has condemned the incident and said it will increase sanctions against Belarus, Russia has backed its neighbour, with Lavrov saying Minsk was adopting an "absolutely reasonable approach” to the issue.

Libya, bunkering on agenda

Apart from Malta’s UN bid, Bartolo and Lavrov are also expected to discuss stability in the Mediterranean region, with a particular emphasis on offshore bunkering and relations with Libya in the aftermath of a bloody dispute in the north African country.

Malta and Russia have been on opposite sides of the Libyan question in recent years, with the Maltese government opening up diplomatic channels with Libya’s Government of National Accord and Russia backing the Libyan National Army of general Khalifa Haftar.

In 2019 Malta also seized a massive shipment of Russian-printed Libyan currency, with government sources describing relations with Moscow as “uncomfortable” as a result.

Sources close to the Foreign Affairs Ministry however, have said the situation had since improved.