The ‘war Cabinet’ film and the unsettling reality around us

With a full-on war happening in Iran and the Gulf region, the last thing we expected was a film from Castille featuring key ministers and agency heads acting to the cameras.

Seeing the prime minister walk into the boardroom at Castille to preside over a ‘war Cabinet’ meeting, followed by ministers reading out their lines while trying to act natural, was pathetic. Whoever got the bright idea of filming what should have been a sober meeting and creating a video for public consumption out of it, should be fired.

At a time of heightened anxiety because of the Iran war, the video was not re-assuring at all and to make matters worse, while the ‘war Cabinet’ film was airing on social media, somewhere in the seas around Malta a Russian LNG carrier, the Arctic Metagaz, was being attacked by marine drones. This ship is part of the shadow fleet operated by Russia to export oil and gas in breach of international sanctions.

There is lack of clarity as to where the incident involving the Arctic Metagaz actually happened. What we know for sure is that it did occur in international waters. We also know that the ship with a gaping hole in its side was discovered some 150 nautical miles to the southeast of Malta and the crew were picked up from their lifeboat in the same area after being located by an Armed Forces of Malta aircraft. We also know that the last known location of the ship before it switched off its tracking device was some 25 nautical miles off Malta, on Hurd Bank, almost 24 hours before the ‘may day’ signal was given.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said in parliament, the AFM only received the call for help in the afternoon of Tuesday, purportedly hours after the explosion occurred.

Mysterious circumstances surround the Arctic Metagaz incident but it brought back memories of last year’s drone attack on a vessel operated by pro-Palestinian activists that happened on Hurd Bank. Both incidents go to show how the seas around Malta remain a theatre of conflict. And in an era where drones have changed the nature of warfare and terrorism, the risks are even higher than they ever were of having an incident close to us that could have debilitating consequences.

Within this context, Malta needs to have the capacity to identify potential threats, analyse them, and if necessary, neutralise them, even with the help of allies. To do this, the Armed Forces of Malta must have the intelligence—whether gathered directly or through information sharing—that gives it situational awareness that extends beyond the 12-mile territorial waters and airspace.

The AFM needs to have the physical assets, technological equipment and adequately trained human resources to perform its primary role of defending the Maltese territory, its people and its critical infrastructure. And that also includes the ability to monitor the 25-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) whenever Malta decides to activate it.

Malta’s investment on defence and security does not make for encouraging reading. The budget is primarily eaten up by salaries, leaving little else for strategic and operational investments. Within this context, it makes little sense for Malta to opt out of EU defence funding programmes and initiatives because of the neutrality clause in the Constitution.

Neutrality in and of itself does not preclude the country from investing in its own security and defence capabilities. Former AFM Deputy Commander Col David P. Attard, writing in MaltaToday, argues that “neutrality without capability risks irrelevance”. He is right. Neutrality is not an invisible shield that protects us all from rogue actions. On the contrary, it needs to be defended in a credible way to serve its purpose.

Attard argues that national security in the 21st century, for a small island like Malta, is not defined by acquiring tanks and fighter jets. “It is defined by sensors, intelligence capture and sharing, data integration, infrastructure protection and rapid response capabilities.”

Alongside the social and budgetary measures to cushion the country from economic shocks that may result from the ongoing Iran war, we’d expect Malta’s ‘war Cabinet’ to also discuss national security in a serious way. It beggars belief that around the table in Castille the head of the AFM and other security agencies were not even present.

It’s not enough to gloat that Malta is one of the safest countries in the world. It only takes a single act of madness to change that statistic to the worse. And while that is not something we would like to entertain; it cannot be ignored or minimised.

Maybe it’s time for those in the ‘war Cabinet’ to step out of the film and into the real world.