Abela’s Trumpian moment

After the dramatic fallout in the White House between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Maltese government has gone AWOL on Ukraine. 

There was no public show of support for Zelenskyy after he was bullied and humiliated by Trump and US Vice President JD Vance. 

On Sunday, Prime Minister Robert Abela displayed no empathy with Zelenskyy over the White House incident, instead opting to downplay its significance. “Let’s call it an episode rather than an incident… it will be a mistake to condemn either side,” Abela told his interviewer (a member of his own communications team at the OPM). 

But while he refrained from condemning the US President and for that matter even Russia, Abela was less guarded when referring to Ukraine. “There is no way Ukraine will win the war,” he said, adding that peace will require “compromise”. 

The suggestion was that Ukraine will have to concede territory to achieve peace or else go it alone. Abela was simply repeating Trump’s rhetoric and in the process aligning Malta with the Trump lackeys inside the EU. 

A day before, Foreign Minister Ian Borg was more nuanced, even if he did signal a change in stance. During his radio interview Borg aligned himself with Emanuel Macron’s statement on the White House debacle – Macron had told reporters: ‘There is an aggressor which is Russia. There is an aggressed people which is Ukraine’. But Borg also emphasised that if Malta is to play any part in securing peace, it must not inflame tensions or “attack either side”. 

This shift in discourse undermines what Borg himself has repeatedly argued over the past three years – for a small, defence-less country like Malta it is important that a rules-based world order prevails. 

Borg had used this argument to defend Malta’s position when condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine, despite being a neutral country. Russia’s invasion upended international law; the Foreign Minister had argued. 

In October 2022, on TVM’s Xtra, Borg had said Malta cannot witness the invasion of another country without condemning such action. 

In February 2023, Borg told MaltaToday, after chairing the Security Council’s debate on the anniversary of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, that Malta had clearly recognised that there was one aggressor and one victim in the war. This, he argued, informed the Maltese parliament’s decision to host Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

In December 2024, when addressing the OSCE ministerial meeting held in Malta, Borg called on Russia to “withdraw from the internationally recognised territory of Ukraine and end this war”. 

Until then, there was no ambivalence where Malta stood. Despite being a neutral country, Malta still felt the duty to condemn what was wrong and within its constitutional limits, offer humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Malta also embraced all EU-imposed sanctions on Russia, while advocating for peace. 

But that seems to be yesteryear. 

Abela’s intervention on Sunday left no room for ambiguity where his administration stands today, now that the mood in Washington has changed into a pro-Putin one. Abela spoke peace but what he hinted at was appeasement. 

Abela’s attitude is worrying because it underestimates the risks posed to a small island state like Malta when big countries act like Russia has done. 

Unfortunately, like some in the Labour Party, Abela believes Malta’s neutrality is some sort of invisibility cloak that protects the island from foreign aggression. It does not. 

Neutrality did not protect Malta in 1980 when Libya decided to send armed boats to stop an oil rig from searching for oil on Malta’s continental shelf. Neutrality did not stop Israel’s Mossad from sending undercover agents to Malta to assassinate Palestinian national Fathi Shqaqi in 1995. 

In the prevailing circumstances, where Europe is facing a serious military challenge on its immediate borders, Malta would do well to align itself with its European allies rather than play the Trump card. It is pretty obvious that without the US’s backing, Europe has no option but to boost defence spending. If push comes to shove, no Trump will come rushing to Malta’s defence. The strongest protection this country has is through its EU membership.