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Stopped by border disputes with Tunisia and Libya, Malta’s oil exploration efforts may resume in three months’ time after an agreement to share territory with Tunis. Foreign Minister MICHAEL FRENDO defends his agreement, although the fine print rests to be written
Caught between Malta and North Africa, a multinational oil company is awaiting clearance from Valletta to continue its exploration studies following preliminary tests that indicate rich oil wells ready to be drilled.
Stalled by border disputes with Libya and Tunisia, Pancontinental will now have to wait at least another three months and 15 days – the deadline set in the agreement signed by Foreign Minister Michael Frendo with Tunis last Monday.
By then, a group of experts appointed by the Maltese and Tunisian government are expected to have agreed upon the areas to be shared by both countries for oil exploration, and the share each will get in the venture.
News of the agreement came in the wake of former Foreign Minister John Dalli’s suggestion that striking a joint oil exploration deal with Libya would be the only practical solution to border disputes.
Frendo calls the agreement with Tunisia “a breakthrough” but the nitty gritty of this deal have yet to be set.
“The agreement doesn’t specify any particular area,” he says. “The discussions so far have been about the median line concept; this is ours and this is yours. The breakthrough here lies in the agreement to do joint exploration in determined zones. Already we have decided that as countries we’re going to go together in certain zones. Now which zones are these? They have to be determined by the group of experts but of course we have been in discussions which we have claims on them and the Tunisians have claims on them. Now the experts have got to agree on the zones and then report back to the foreign ministries. The breakthrough and the giant step forward is the issue of doing it jointly, which had been attempted several times over a 35-year period. There was no agreement between the two states.”
Practically, Malta did not have much of a choice. It could keep the status quo and leave the oil rich region unexplored, or fight a lengthy and risky war for territory at the International Court of Justice.
“Yes, that’s how it is not only for Malta but for the other country too,” Frendo concedes. “You can go to the international court, in fact the Labour government had decided to go to the international court with the consent of Libya, to set the median line. We had a decision, not exactly very favourable to Malta, but we did have a decision, and there’s a small piece at the South of Malta, where there’s the line drawn by the international court. We decided not to go down that path, but to go down the path of doing it jointly.”
Doing it jointly is another way of saying this is Malta giving up waters it historically claimed to have a right on.
“Well, we both have got to give and take, and to come to an agreement which will make it possible for us to explore and to search for oil,” Frendo replies. “I think it’s the best possible solution.”
The minister secured the agreement after regular diplomatic and technical meetings in the Tunisian capital and here, sealed after a lengthy hour and a half chat with the Tunisian President, Ben Ali.
“We clinched the political moment, because there was a political moment when this was reached,” Frendo says with an air of optimism.
After the experts report back to their governments, Frendo will then have to negotiate the percentage of the share that will remain Malta’s in an oil extraction projects that will be held with the Tunisians. It is clear this will affect Pancontinental’s ongoing project, given that the Tunisian government is bound to claim a share in the venture which so far is held in partnership exclusively with Malta.
“It depends where the zones are identified,” Frendo says, “and of course we will be partnering as well in their areas. I mean the whole thing has to be win-win and we’re very confident that Tunisia will be looking for a win-win situation just like we will be looking for it.”
On the other hand, a vaster stretch of unexploited oil reserves bordering with Libya remain untouchable and a similar agreement seems nowhere near.
“The situation with Libya is only the same in so far as there is an issue. Everything is different with Libya,” he says. “With Libya we have an International Court of Justice judgement which we do not have with Tunisia. A judgement which actually has pushed the line up from the median line, so you can actually view that judgement made us lose a lot of territory. On the ground there’s a different situation with Libya.”
The leader of the Jamahiriya remains “welcome anytime”, Frendo says as the dates of his expected visit here remain unknown. About his alleged request to make a state visit during CHOGM week last November as reported by The Malta Independent on Sunday, Frendo says it as “an outright lie”.
Another agreement he announced in the last week was what he called the “revitalisation of the Friendship and Cooperation Agreement” with Libya. His declaration was met with incredulity not much because of the terms of the deal but because of the hilarious irony of a Nationalist minister expressing his wish to revitalise and agreement originally signed by Dom Mintoff in 1984 and much vilified by the then Nationalist Opposition.
“It raised a few eyebrows,” Frendo admits.
His shadow minister, Leo Brincat, told him that resorting to a 22-year-old document just goes to show this administration’s backwardness. Indeed, is this the only thing the government could come up with?
“OK, I think that’s a fair question because it raised a few eyebrows,” Frendo says. “The friendship and cooperation agreement we have at the moment of course has two changes in it. The first is that there is no military clause and the second is that because we are EU members we had to make a change in the visa regime. This agreement is possibly a basis for finding a sort of closer relationship on economic terms with Libya.”
On paper, it speaks about easier business and access for workers in both countries, although Frendo himself admits it is too early to speak of any concrete results.
A repatriation agreement with Libya which would solve a big part of the immigration problem for Malta seems remote, although Frendo says it remains under discussion.
It also seems that Malta in its negotiations with Tripoli on repatriation is pledging aid to Libya as Frendo speaks of helping repatriated migrants in their reintegration.
“One issue we have to look into is the reintegration of repatriated migrants, because we have to be serious, we have to be tough, but we also have to be ourselves, and that is a society that is caring,” he said. “Therefore if we send back migrants we should be able to help with their training, help reintegrating them into their society, maybe help to teach them some sort of skill or craft which would allow them to make money back in their countries.”
The minister admits illegal immigration is taking him more time then he thought it would, and come July his headaches are bound to increase shockingly as the International Maritime Organisation imposes a new clause to the search and rescue convention requiring states to rescue and host immigrants in distress within all their search and rescue region.
“We think that that is something which is not very reasonable to adopt,” he says.
“We have an extremely vast search and rescue region and this convention will require every member to take care of immigrants in their area. What will Malta do when other countries will tell us ‘these are yours to take care of’?
“I think Tonio Borg and I will look at this very carefully and we will follow what is public international law.”
That is?
“That is we will see the situation as it arises in July. We are still talking about and discussing this issue among ourselves at the moment.”
Will we have to negotiate every case?
“It is a worrying situation. We don’t agree with this clause. We’ve put our position very clear, we’ve made our reservations and therefore we’ll have to see how best to react in a way that is least harmful to our country. If you were to take this literally it would mean that anybody passing through from near Greece would have to be picked up by us, and we just don’t have the resources to do that. So there are practical things on the ground, we don’t have the resources to do that. We are a very serious country and we have always shown a lot of care and understanding, but this is certainly a major concern.”
Cabinet had actually shot down Tonio Borg’s idea of shrinking the search and rescue region. Why was that?
“I think when you’re talking about search and rescue you have to take into account many other considerations. Shot down seems a strong way of describing that. I think this is an issue which remains under discussion. I would not like to go into much detail about it because it is still under discussion.”
Very high level AFM officers say the Italians are shrewdly informing us of every boat leaving Libya so that we become immediately responsible for its recovery. Ever brought this subject up with your Italian counterpart?
“Look, our position is very clear. We will give assistance to a boat in distress. We have our obligation under international norms and also a moral obligation to assist boats in distress. Boats leaving Libya may not even pass through our waters, so it’s not an issue of us simply going to pick them all up. It is very clear Italy and Malta are committed to doing their best together about this. I find that Italy has always been a close and sensitive friend, however of course one understands that at all times, and in the calmest of manners, we always defend the interests of this country.”
Another document Frendo has just launched has to do with his strategic objectives for the ministry – another source of ‘nothing new’ criticism from Leo Brincat, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman. I tell him a phrase that struck me as present in almost every page of this document is “will continue”. Malta will continue, the ministry will continue doing whatever it has been doing for ages. So again, what’s really new here?
“The phrase is ‘focus’,” Frendo says, trying to focus my attention on another word similarly used all over the document. “It’s a document to help us focus our thinking. We don’t afford to be all over the place. We are a small country, we need to focus.”
High on his priorities are Italy, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, “to build an intimate relationship with these countries”, as well as enforcing performance benchmarks on every embassy.
“We also have to focus on new emerging economies – that’s never been an area of focus of the foreign ministry. We are opening a high commission in India; we are working closely with Malta Enterprise. I am pushing all our ambassadors and I will judge them on that, that now because of the strategic objectives we’re going to have an action plan for each of their embassies. That means that we are now going to have a measuring stick for the performance of each embassy, and we are serious about this. We’ll take action related to the achievements of each one of our embassies because we want to be serious about the value added that we give to the people from this ministry.”
Let’s talk about one specific embassy. The perception out there is that Richard Cachia Caruana is running a ministry of his own.
Frendo laughs quite loudly at the question but he also exudes a sense of irritability at the suggestion that his theoretical subordinate may be out of his grasp.
“You can perceive whatever you want. Richard Cachia Caruana is in my view doing a very good job, he’s very focused, he’s someone who’s on top of what he’s doing; it’s a very difficult job and it is an inter-ministerial job. He is an ambassador so he reports to this ministry, and he does take instructions from this ministry… Richard takes instructions from the capital. We’re working well, we meet very regularly, and I don’t feel it’s an embassy that is out of control if that’s the question that you put to me.”
As the international crisis over the cartoons depicting prophet Mohammed seems to be subsiding slowly, I ask Frendo whether he ever believed Muslims would be so touchy about them.
“The situation is highly charged because of conflicts, fear, Islamophobia… it’s a highly charged situation so sensitivities are very high,” he says. “Although perhaps we in the West are used to cartoons which are strong, quite frankly I would have been myself as a Christian a little bit taken aback. I find some things to be distasteful. But that is my personal reaction.”
Frendo repeats his belief that the state should not censor the press.
“But on the other hand we feel that there should be sensitivity in the way that you exercise your freedom of speech. They could have been much more sensitive to the fact that this is a highly charged situation and that this could be offensive to Muslims. Damage has been done, in my view, in a situation where Islam feels a little bit under threat, as if everybody is saying that because of 9/11 and you’re a Muslim you’re a terrorist. We need to work at more reconciliation but we should develop it also on the cultural level.”
One of these highly charged territories lies in Iran, as both the US and the Iranian president keep upping the stakes of what may end up in nuclear disaster and war. Did you receive any pressures from the US to severe diplomatic and commercial relations with Iran?
“No.”
None whatsoever?
“No.”
Not even about the use of Maltese ports?
“No. We have had discussions with the Americans about the security of our Freeport, they’ve also given us equipment to make the Freeport safe, but we have no pressures on Iran. Our position is the same as the EU’s. We’ve given our contribution to that; the developments in Iran are extremely worrying, they are of great concern to all of us. Really, we would like Iran back in the mainstream of the international community in full respect of their sovereignty and dignity.”
About the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections, Frendo says his initial reaction was one of concern “but also of extreme respect” for the choice of the people.
“You cannot wish democracy and then want democracy to obey your rules in terms of who is elected,” Frendo says. “Hamas is a reality; it’s a choice of the Palestinians. We know from the ground that it was not necessarily a choice which was based on Hamas’s position with regards to Israel. My reaction was not one of panic, I went on record saying that we should wait and see.”
Now in government, Hamas must respect the commitments made by the Palestinian Authority, Frendo says, but that also applies to Israel.
“We must make sure that we do not take decisions that increase the influence of Iran in the region,” he says about the threat by the US and Europe to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority. “That could be the consequence of some of the actions which are taken. We are saying let us be wise, careful and fair. Let us respect the result, let us insist on the Palestinian Authority keeping all the commitments it has made with regards to Israel and the road map, let’s insist that both sides do that – in the same way we have to insist with Israel. There has to be a stop to the building of the wall, particularly on land which is clearly not Israel, and also the increased building of settlements particularly around East Jerusalem. The road map applies to everybody.”
Shifting the discussion back to Europe, at the moment Malta is victim of French and Italian protectionism that has led to national bans on Maltese gaming websites. What kind of common market did we join?
“In our view any country which does that is wrong,” Frendo says categorically. “Italy or France, it’s wrong, because we believe that the Gambelli case decided by the European Court of Justice has very clearly laid out that there is a single market in online gaming and that this issue is very important for the internal market of the EU. If a country wants to impose limitations on gaming, it should not do it only on online gaming but also on land based gaming. If a country decides to support the monopoly institution and stop online gaming then it’s using two weights and two measures. That’s our view, that’s a view which I took only a few weeks ago to the European Commissioner on the internal market. My strong lobby there was: ‘the commission has got to defend the single market’.”
And his answer?
“And his answer was that the commission is already looking at this. Of course we know that the services directive has excluded gaming from its operations and the commission has already taken some action against certain countries, and there is a complaint by a Maltese company which I went to defend. We have one of the best regulated online gaming jurisdictions in the world. This kind of action is the reaction to success.”
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