Malta, a picturesque island nation in the south of Europe, is often dubbed as the “heart of the Mediterranean.” Geographically connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, Malta, an EU member country, it is an economically well-developed country with its GDP per capita in 2017 reaching US $27145.81, considerably higher than the world’s average.

Invited by Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Malta’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion Carmelo Abela paid an official visit to China from September 12 to 15. The two sides discussed possibilities of expanding fields for bilateral cooperation, involving trade, energy, infrastructure, financial services, tourism, and culture, to name a few.

CIIE: A Valuable Cooperation Platform

On September 14, at the Malta Day activities commemorating the 54th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Malta, held in Beijing, Minister Abela accepted an exclusive interview with China Today, about the upcoming first China International Import Expo, sharing his views on the prospects of China-Malta cooperation.

“In today’s world, we need to work together; we don’t need to have trade wars. We always need to work together in the interests of all. So this is the opportunity to have a wider perspective, not only focus on our work, our region only, but to expand. We need more cooperation rather than working on our own.” The minister indicated.

Malta, consisting of the biggest archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, has a typical Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot summers. The country is a popular holiday paradise in Europe. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip celebrated their Diamond anniversary in Malta, where they spent some of their happiest days as a young couple. The smash-hit fantasy TV drama “Game of Thrones” once filmed on the Gozo island of Malta, taking the stunning natural arch Azure Window as a setting.

“The first (area to increase cooperation) is tourism, we have discussed extensively the issue. Today I’m informed that about 131 million Chinese traveled a year, which is a huge amount of people travelling. We only get a few. We would like to increase the number of Chinese comes to visit my country, and there is much potential in doing that.” Abela said.

He went on to say, “I know the products we can offer to the Chinese people, and Chinese people would like the product. But we need to find ways and means to make Malta know the Chinese, and to be the destination coming to mind when the Chinese is planning his or her holiday abroad. We need to work together on that, we also need to increase connectivity. Of course we need to find ways and means to make it easier for Chinese to travel and come to Malta.”

Abela also mentioned that there are other initiatives the two countries can work together in different field, for example the block chain.” We are the first European country that have regulated this area. So for block chain companies that would like to have a piece of mine, and to invest in a company, Malta is the place to be, because we have the rule of the game in our legislation, so they know what are the possibilities according to our rule, and it’s good for them to invest.”

Active Supporters of Multilateralism

On world multilateralism, the minister commented, “We believe it (China) is a country supporting multilateralism. And from the discussion we had with the state councilor and minister of foreign affairs Wang Yi yesterday, we both emphasized the need for multilateralism. So the role China is playing internationally and the role we’re playing internationally is by far the same.”

“We are both active countries when it comes to multilateralism. We believe that global challenges need also the global response, so I’m very positive about the way we are looking at things. And we have the ability to work together, despite of our size and geography ,” he further added.

Source: China Today