Malta will play a bigger role in international relations following a successful year chairing the OSCE, the world’s largest regional security organisation, the Maltese ambassador to the group has said.
Natasha Meli Daudey, Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said the country “should and will play a bigger role in international relations”.
“We showed what a small country could do, and I say this with a lot of pride, because the comments I’ve heard are that we have put Malta on the map,” said Meli Daudey, who also serves as ambassador to Austria.
“Malta was extremely successful at the OSCE and definitely exceeded all expectations; we were asked to just keep the organisation alive by doing the minimum, and we went beyond that,” she said.
“Now we have sown these seeds... I don’t think that it will be forgotten easily.”
We have put Malta on the map- Natasha Meli Daudey
Meli Daudey was speaking to Times of Malta following this year’s OSCE Ministerial Council, which took place at the end of last week at Ta’ Qali.
The largest international conference of ministers Malta has hosted to date, the gathering grabbed headlines around the world, not least because of the controversial appearance of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Looking back at the conference, Meli Daudey described preparation for the event as having been a “massive task” and paid tribute to the Maltese staff working on it.
Countries are usually notified years in advance of ascending to the chair of the organisation, having plenty of time to prepare for ministerial councils, while Malta took up the role in January with only three weeks’ notice.
“It was a lot of work and extremely complicated to manage, and then there were the politics of it all,” she said.
Calling Malta a “bridge builder”, Meli Daudey said the country had partly been chosen because of its history of neutrality: “We have only one main interest: peace and security. So, we were able to talk to everyone.”
While stressing Malta had remained “very principled” on the Ukraine war – a divisive issue that has seen Russia marginalised on the world stage – its delegation “told the Russians what they had to be told” while keeping channels of communication open.
“On the side we were still able to speak and to do diplomacy, and that was the trick – and it was accepted by them as well,” Meli Daudey explained.
“As long as we managed to do the diplomacy behind the scenes, they accepted the fact that we told them exactly what they deserve to be told in public.”
Torpedoed talks
Despite announcing four top leadership appointments last week, the OSCE failed to reach agreement on its budget for this year, a long-standing issue for the organisation.
While it has been able to function by instead being allotted a monthly budget based on funds allocated to the previous budget, Meli Daudey explained, the arrangement was proving expensive, with the group unable to make long-term commitments.
While it came close to agreement, “a country in the South Caucasus” – an area bordering Eastern Europe and West Asia – had torpedoed the talks at the last moment, she explained.
“There was a lot of effort, even personal effort by the chairing office [Foreign Minister Ian Borg] himself. He negotiated numbers personally, went to the two countries and tried to convince them... we were very close, but then one of the countries decided not to join consensus.
“You need the 57 [countries in the OSCE] to agree. And the problem is that when the consensus principle is used as a veto, you cannot move.”
Detainees and small states
In July, Russia sentenced OSCE monitoring mission official Vadym Golda to 14 years in prison for alleged “espionage” in the occupied Donbas region of Ukraine, the third official from the organisation to face such action.
The trio’s detention has provoked a strong reaction, with Malta, UK and Canada among those having called for their immediate release.
Borg has called their treatment “unjust, inhumane and unacceptable”.
Asked about the issue, Meli Daudey said the Maltese delegation discusses it at “each and every meeting we have with the Russians, but it remains difficult. We definitely haven’t convinced them”.
Looking to the future, although Malta’s chairing of the organisation ends this month, Meli Daudey believes the country’s record could lead to more small countries taking the lead at the OSCE.
“Malta set a very good example, and people saw how it can work without compromising on principles. I truly think there will be bigger roles for countries like ours.”