Malta and the United States : a common interest in Mediterranean security

Abstract

A relationship between the world’s only remaining superpower and one of Europe’s smallest countries would seem unlikely, but Malta-U.S. relations stretch back over two hundred years to a time when Malta was governed by the Knights of Malta (the Knights Hospitaller). In 1783, Benjamin Franklin requested that American ships be granted access to Maltese ports, with the first U.S. Consul to the Knights of Malta being appointed in 1796. By 1800, Malta had come under British control and bilateral relations with the U.S. ended. However, increased American interest in European security during the Second World War saw a grow-ing appreciation of Malta’s strategic importance in the Mediterranean and it was in Malta that George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev declared the end of the Cold War in 1989. However, Malta’s strategic position at the centre of the Mediter-ranean, its neutrality and view of NATO as a means of facilitating EU membership (rather than as an opportunity for collective defence) have meant that the U.S. rep-resents a different type of partner for Malta compared with many countries’ views of the U.S. from continental Europe.