Malta and Iceland

Maltese sociologist Godfrey Baldacchino who is now based in Canada at Prince Edward Island draws lessons for Malta from the historical experience of Iceland:

Malta and Iceland remain the only two unitary small island sovereign states in Europe. They have gone through long centuries of colonialism but have both demonstrated the credibility of their foreign policy as sovereign states by being invited to host key USA-USSR superpower talks: Gorbachev met Ronald Reagan in Iceland and later on George Bush in Malta. In spite of obvious differences, they are both expected to compete in a global market where their relative small size and isolation should be seen as harbouring unique opportunities for development. An unfortunate geographic status of marginalisation may be seen instead as being one of lucrative ‘in betweenity'. One crucial difference, to my mind, is that we do not have the added benefit of a regional market; and most Maltese remain reluctant to even consider a Mediterranean outlook. While what could to us be readily available energy sources – such as the sun, sea and wind – remain sadly under utilised.