Belgian Ambassador Thomas Baekelandt, said that though the political crisis in his country was very serious, Belgium's split along linguistic lines "is not in the offing".
Mr Baeklandt was speaking at the reception he and his wife hosted on November 15 at the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa to mark King's Day.
Addressing guests at the reception, who were led by President Eddie Fenech Adami, the Belgian Ambassador said that though more than five months had passed since the election, his country was still without a new government. The major impediment involves new state reforms; this would solve a simmering language problem dividing the country.
However, international press reports about an impending split in the country were exaggerated, he said.
The ambassador, who has been here for more than three years, said people-to-people relations between the two countries were thriving. Apart from the exchange of tourists, he listed the following: Maltese pigeon fanciers buy their champions in Belgium, bands compete in music festivals, teachers exchange best practices in schools, students comlete their university studies in Malta and doctors refer patients to their Belgian colleagues for specialised treatment.
These relations have been enhanced since Malta joined the European Union.
The leaders of the EU will sign the Treaty of Lisbon in a few weeks' time, he said. This treaty is the final stage of a process started in Laeken during the Belgian Presidency in 2001, which intended to reform the working of the EU taking into account the enlarged membership.
"For Belgium the reform is not finished, we will have to come back to this in due time. Belgium does not regard the EU as another intergovernmental organisation. The EU is not only a free trade zone or an economic bloc. It is more than that; it is a commonality of interests, a sharing of values and aspirations."
Mr Baekelandt announced that the two tapestries of St John's Co-Cathedral sent to Belgium for restoration "will come back to hang in all their renewed splendour at the museum". Another set of two will be sent to Belgium, one of which, the Corpus Christi, will be restored with financing of the King Baudouin Foundation, together with a foundation set up to promote Brussels art, the René en Karin Jonckheere Foundation. And there were another 25 tapestries to be restored.
The ambassador then invited guests to help themselves to Duvel and other Belgian beers now available in Malta and to shrimp, fresh from the North Sea, flown in by the Embassy, not to mention the Belgian chocolates produced by a Belgian chocolatier in Gozo.
He then proposed a toast to Dr Fenech Adami and to Belgian-Maltese relations, to which the President replied with a short speech on relations between the two countries and in the light of Malta's membership of the European Union, ending with a toast to King Albert II and to the prosperity of the Belgian people.