Malta is not being pressured to join NATO, Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg said on the eve of the official launch of Malta’s take-over of the world’s largest regional security body.
The vast majority of the Maltese people support Malta’s military neutrality and have no intention of changing that position, he told Times of Malta in Vienna.
He was fielding questions on whether he fears the Ukraine war could spread across Europe.
“Malta cannot join military alliances and we expect all countries to act responsibly and refrain from invading other territories without reason,” he said.
“Russia started the war and if it stops it, then most other problems will stop with it.”
Late last year Malta was unexpectedly chosen to lead the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) throughout 2024, after Russia vetoed Estonia’s bid for the chairpersonship.
The presidency rotates annually and Malta was the only country all participating states – including the US and Russia – could agree on.
This is even though Malta has taken a clear stand in favour of Ukraine in the war and Borg, has, as OSCE chair, reiterated that Russia must withdraw immediately from the entire territory of Ukraine.
Russia's demands on the OSCE
On Wednesday Borg told Times of Malta Russia is demanding that the OSCE refrains from focusing solely on the Ukraine war and that it condemns the killing of innocent civilians in Russia.
“If Russia stops the war no soldiers or civilians will die. That is our message, while we continue to condemn civilian killings,” he said.
“I am not ready to compromise on our principles. We respect international laws and expect that all states do the same. You cannot wake up one morning and decide to invade your neighbour, just because you’re more powerful than them.”
Borg, who is serving as chair-in-office on behalf of Malta, is expected to highlight Russia’s war in Ukraine as one of Malta’s overarching priorities in his address at the official inauguration of Malta’s presidency in Vienna on Thursday morning.
Borg expecting a tough year
The OSCE was founded in the 1970s to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War and to this day remains one of the only remaining political communication platforms between the West and Russia and its allies.
The body brings together 57 states from North America to Europe and Asia to discuss and take action on conflict prevention and arms control and to foster economic development in the region, ensure sustainable use of natural resources, promote human rights, fundamental freedoms, freedom of the press and free and fair elections.
Borg is expecting a tough year. He must bring together mammoth political powers and seek unanimous consensus at a time when two of them – Russia and Ukraine – continue to fight a raging war and during a volatile period when there will be elections in the US, in Russia and across the whole of Europe.
“This is an organisation in which countries who are at war sit down together to find common solutions, and no decision can go ahead unless all countries agree on it,” he said.
“We must even have consensus on the aid countries send to Ukraine.”
Borg must constantly bridge deep political divisions while running an organisation that has not had an approved budget since 2021 and which risks falling apart if there is no consensus on which countries should run it in the coming years.
As Borg strives to see that the organisation has a healthy future, Russia is insisting it must know who the contenders to lead the OSCE in the coming years are because it has no faith in some of them, he said.
This is essentially what happened late last year when Malta was chosen to take over the chairpersonship at the last minute.
“The decision to put Malta at the helm saved the OSCE,” Borg said.
All countries have already agreed Finland should take the lead next year, commemorating 50 years since the organisation was founded in Helsinki in 1975. But Borg must secure consensus on the country that will take the lead in 2026.