A Maltese account of French and Greek pressure
LIBYA – Former Maltese foreign minister Evarist Bartolo has accused France and Greece of putting pressure on his country while he was in office over Valletta’s refusal to take part in a naval blockade aimed at stopping Turkish arms shipments from reaching Tripoli, the Maltese English-language newspaper MaltaToday reported.
Macron and Greece accused of threatening Maltese interests
According to the report — followed and summarised by Al-Marsad — Bartolo said French President Emmanuel Macron threatened to pull a major microchip factory out of Malta, while Greece threatened to pressure shipowners to leave the Maltese shipping registry after Malta refused to take part in the naval mission.
Dispute during Bartolo’s 2020–2022 tenure
The report said the allegations relate to Bartolo’s time as foreign minister between 2020 and 2022, when Malta refused to join a mission targeting arms supplies sent from Turkey to the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord and the government that emerged from it.
Bartolo said the factory in question was French-owned and that its exports at the time accounted for nearly half of all goods manufactured in Malta, while Athens, by his account, threatened measures that would affect Malta’s shipping registry.
The former minister’s account of the Greek push
The report quoted Bartolo as saying that Greece pushed for a naval mission to stop arms reaching Tripoli because Benghazi, in the east, was, as he put it, receiving its weapons supplies by land.
Malta’s stance on the mission and Turkish and Libyan understanding
Bartolo said his predecessor, Carmelo Abela, had negotiated Malta’s participation in the naval mission, but that he strongly opposed the decision when he took office.
He added that he had found considerable understanding from both the Turkish and Libyan sides for Malta’s decision not to join the mission, which he described as useless because it was unable to stop weapons reaching Libya.
