Military ship visits highest in Muscat era

The Joseph Muscat administrations between 2013 and 2019 saw the highest average number of military vessels being granted permission to berth in Malta’s ports.

By: maltatoday.com

Nov 18 2024
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Military ship visits highest

The Joseph Muscat administrations between 2013 and 2019 saw the highest average number of military vessels being granted permission to berth in Malta’s ports.

During this seven-year period an average of 82 foreign military or State ships were granted diplomatic clearance to berth, an analysis of information tabled in parliament shows.

The information was tabled by Foreign Minister Ian Borg in reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici. The MP wanted to know how many requests the protocol office had received for military or State vessels to berth in Malta since 2021, however the minister provided the information since 2004.

The Lawrence Gonzi administrations between 2004 and 2012 saw an average of 62 military vessels per year berth in Malta. The yearly average dropped drastically to 39 military ships in the four years since Robert Abela has been in power.

The statistics presented in parliament show that a record 133 military ships were granted permission to berth in Malta in 2016, the highest ever since 2004.

The second highest number of foreign military vessels to visit was in 2011, at the height of the Libya crisis when 119 ships were granted permission to enter Malta’s ports.

This year, up until the end of October, 45 military or State vessels were granted diplomatic clearance to berth, while last year 64 such ships docked in Malta. The lowest number of military vessels to visit was 15 in 2021.

The PQ contained no other information but military ships often use these stopovers to rest their crew and take on supplies after a tour of duty. However, in 2011, some of the requests were undoubtedly linked to the evacuation of foreign nationals from Libya since Malta was acting as a transit point for evacuees soon after the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi started.