New Malta Government to Keep Libya Ties but Move Closer to West, U.S.

“There is this impression, formed abroad, that we were too closely aligned with the Libyans. This will not happen under the new government.”

Eddie Fenech-Adami was speaking of his plans as prime minister of Malta, the strategic island that lies south of Sicily and north of Libya in the Mediterranean.

“Libya has helped us a lot in the past,” he said in an interview, “and we shall maintain our friendly relations.

“But Maltese policies will no longer be identified with Libyan policies. . . . Malta should not align itself, particularly in a military way, with Libya.”

Elected Last Month

Fenech-Adami was sworn in as prime minister last month after his conservative Nationalist Party won election on a platform promising stronger ties with Western Europe and the United States. The victory ended 16 years of Socialist governments that closed NATO’s bases on Malta in 1971 and shut down Britain’s military facilities in 1979, while linking up with Col. Moammar Kadafi’s Libya.

A Libyan presence is clearly visible in this seaside capital.

In the main square, across from the stately presidential palace where Fenech-Adami was sworn in, is the large Libyan cultural center. There, a plywood sign with green Arabic script hides a marble inscription recording the cession of Malta to Britain, its colonizer until 1964.

Equally visible is the elegant, Libyan-owned Villa Foran outside Valletta, once the official residence of the local NATO commander and now used for Libyan official receptions.

Libyan Money, Oil

It was Libyan investment and oil that enabled Malta to survive after it shut down the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the British bases, at the expense of numerous Maltese jobs.

But although Fenech-Adami indicates that he intends to move away from close diplomatic and cultural ties with Libya, he hopes to maintain and even increase economic links.

Sources in his Nationalist Party say that Malta will no longer consider itself bound by clauses in a 1984 Maltese-Libyan treaty covering information exchanges on security and defense matters, Libyan training of Maltese soldiers and a Maltese option to call in Libyan military help.

Also under review is an agreement that allows Libyans and Maltese to travel between the two countries without visas.

Influence Remains

Economically, however, Libyan influence remains strong. Fenech-Adami said he plans to develop economic ties “even more closely” with the radical Arab nation 200 miles to the south.

“Any diplomatic rupture is going to affect Malta’s balance of payments,” one Western diplomatic source said. “Libya definitely has the possibility of exerting pressure.”

Government officials say that 3,500 to 4,000 of Malta’s work force of 117,000 are employed by Libyan firms, with 1,900 others working in Libya.

Libya has sunk millions of dollars in about 24 enterprises here, ranging from shoe factories and pump making to 30% ownership of the Malta Shipbuilding Co., one of the island’s leading and fastest-growing employers.

Tourism Down

More than 43,300 Libyan tourists visited Malta in 1985. But their numbers diminished after last year’s U.S. bombing raid, Maltese official said, adding that the decline was partly due to Libyan travel and currency restrictions.

Libya and Malta recently signed an agreement under which Malta will export $90 million in goods and services to Libya--roughly a sixth of Malta’s exports--in 1987, while importing $60 million in Libyan products, most of it oil.

But apart from the balance sheets, the new government does appear to herald a political shift away from Libya--as well as the Eastern Bloc--and toward the West. This reflects the wishes of many of the 340,000 Maltese who consider themselves Europeans, despite their likelihood of Arab ancestry. Italian is widely spoken on Malta, although the official languages are English and Maltese, a Semitic language.

“Now we will enjoy real liberty again, and will be closer to (the United States) and to Europe, where we belong,” John Vella, a Nationalist Party member and businessman, said after the election.

Offended by Remarks

Many Maltese, for instance, were offended when Fenech-Adami’s predecessor, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, told them recently they were half-Arab and half-European and when Mifsud Bonnici’s predecessor, Socialist Dom Mintoff, said that Libyans and Maltese were blood brothers.

Others deeply resented a television appearance by Kadafi shortly before the 1976 Maltese elections in which he hailed the two nations’ “common origin and common destiny” but warned that he would shut off Libyan oil should any pro-NATO government win.

Local historian Joseph Galea said that the Maltese historically distrust Libya because of nearly six centuries of raids by Barbary pirates. “That’s why we can never really be friends with Kadafi,” he said.

Malta has suffered at the hands of Western powers too. But dozens of Maltese interviewed said they would welcome a move closer to Europe.

Wants Full Membership

Fenech-Adami plans to push for full membership in the European Economic Community, or Common Market, of which Malta is an associate member. He also wants stronger trade and political agreements with those European nations who will guarantee this island’s neutrality.

Another priority is a reconciliation with the United States, which has openly criticized Malta’s friendship with Libya.

Fenech-Adami also indicates at least a small step back from the Soviet Union. Referring to a treaty in which Soviet merchant ships are allowed to use oil bunkering facilities on the Maltese coast, he said: “We don’t mind that arrangement . . . providing we make clear that in the outbreak of hostile activities, those facilities would be withdrawn.”

In addition, the government plans to disregard a clause in a bilateral treaty providing that Malta and the Soviet Union adopt “a common position” in the event of war.

Neutral, Nonaligned

No military base of any nation will be allowed on Malta, Fenech-Adami said, because of Malta’s constitutionally entrenched status as neutral and nonaligned.

But the island’s internal politics remain a problem for Fenech-Adami. A deep and bitter rift between the Nationalists and Socialists has virtually split the island in two, sporadically erupting into violence.