Historical Dictionary of NATO and Other International Security Organizations by Rimanelli Marco;

Author:Rimanelli, Marco; [Rimanelli, Marco]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1318164
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2013-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

MALTA, EU, NATO PARTNER. Geostrategically important archipelago of only three inhabited islands (Malta, Gozo/Ghawdex, and Comino/Kemmuna), at the center of the Mediterranean’s trade routes, south of Sicily and facing Italy, Libya, and Tunisia, with an area of 316 square kilometers. The capital is Valletta. It is a Christian Catholic country (2 percent other) with a population of 400,000, which speaks English and Maltese.

Colonized in antiquity by Carthage, then by Rome, in the Middle Ages Malta was conquered by Muslim Arabs. Liberated by the Knights of St. John and Rhodes (the Knights of Malta) it became a powerful Christian base against Muslim Saracene pirates. During the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789–1815), Napoleon conquered Malta during the Egyptian Campaign (1798–1801), only to lose it to Great Britain, which rejected joint rule with Czarist Russia and annexed it until 21 September 1964. Malta and Gibraltar were the main naval bases for the British Mediterranean Fleet from the 1800s. In 1881, Italy’s plans to annex Tunisia south of Sicily and Malta were preempted by France seizing Tunisia, while Great Britain, which traditionally favored Italy against France, now sided with Paris to prevent the same power (Italy) from controlling both sides of the Sicilian Channel and so threaten Malta, on which Rome also had designs. During World War I (1914–1918), the Allies feared the locally superior Triple Alliance navies of Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany, and their possible conquest of Malta, but Italy’s neutrality in 1914–1915 and its switch to the Allies’ side shifted naval warfare to the Adriatic and Aegean Seas, and Turkish Straits. During World War II (1939–1945), Malta was isolated and bombed by Fascist Italy, which wanted to annex it, but Axis plans to conquer it were aborted, leaving Malta as a vital British airbase raiding Axis convoys to North Africa. During the Cold War (1946–1990), Malta was an air and naval base for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for antisubmarine warfare (ASW) and Western convoy protection against the Soviet Union (USSR) in case of World War III, but after its independence in 1964, as a Commonwealth member its NATO military role waned, and in 1975 Great Britain disbanded the Mediterranean Fleet and left Malta.

Thereafter, Libyan and Soviet attempts to control Malta, which the United States and NATO regarded with indifference, forced Italy to intervene in 1977, officially guaranteeing Malta’s “neutrality” and defense against all threats. In 1985, Malta became a freight transshipment and tourist-financial center. As a Western state, Malta joined the United Nations (UN) in 1964, the Conference/Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (C/OSCE) in 1975, NATO’s Partnership for Peace/Mediterranean Dialogue in 1994 as a partner, and the European Union (EU) in 2002–2004.

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