Borg addresses OSCE meeting

Foreign Minister Joe Borg yesterday reaffirmed Malta's unwavering resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms, describing it as "the most serious threat to our collective security and stability".

He was speaking at the 11th ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, convened in Maastricht.

"Terrorism creates grief and bitterness, but it also strengthens resolve. It has generated an unprecedented unity among nations in their global condemnation and determination to prevent and combat this through the implementation of the related UN conventions and protocols, all of which Malta has signed and implemented through the suppressing of clandestine financing as well as by working to overcome the circumstances and factors that provide fertile breeding ground for it to fester."

Dr Borg said Malta has for long been convinced that there was urgent scope and reason for the OSCE to intensify dialogue and cooperation with its Mediterranean partners.

"In the Aqaba Mediterranean Seminar, last October, Mediterranean partners expressed renewed interest in, and highlighted their expectations of the OSCE. Participating states also responded equally through an unequivocal demonstration of political will in identifying additional fields of cooperation and interaction."