The Foreign Ministry is inviting artists to submit works honouring former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dom Mintoff.

The selected work of art will be displayed in a ministry hall dedicated to Mr Mintoff as foreign minister.

Mr Mintoff served as foreign minister between 1971-1981. He then handed the portfolio to Alex Sceberras Terigona and stepped down as prime minister in 1984.

The Dom Mintoff hall was inaugurated on August 6, 2019 to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of his birth.

Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela said the proposed work of art must be of the highest calibre and is to encapsulate Mr Mintoff as a statesman as well as his philosophy and contributions in the international fora.

Guidelines and application for this competition can be found on www.foreignaffairs.gov.mt.

Dom Montiff was Malta's second foreign minister. The first was George Borg Olivier, who also combined the roles of prime minister and foreign minister. It was under Dr Borg Olivier that the foreign ministry was set up.

Mr Mintoff's foreign policy was based on neutrality and non-alignment. He down graded relations with Western Europe and improved them with Eastern Europe. In 1978 he derided Western Europe by famously describing it as the Europe of Cain.

“Today there are two Europes, the Europe of Cain and the Europe of Abel. The Europe of Cain is oppressive, the Europe of Abel, progressive. We can come to an arrangement with the latter” he said in Parliament on November 7, 1978.

Mr Mintoff closed the British military base in Malta, stopped US warships from calling at Grand Harbour and forged particularly strong relations with China, Yugoslavia and Libya. He also negotiated financial protocols with Italy.

Despite giving the west the cold shoulder, he only allowed the then Soviet Union to open an embassy here in the last months of his premiership.

Following his retirement, Mr Mintoff fought tooth and nail against Malta joining the European Union.