@ H:P.

Thanks for taking the time.

With reference to the comment from H.P. Baxxter which followed.

Unfortunately, Borg Olivier’s support for NATO was not reciprocated, in spite of the support that Admiral Birindelli tried to obtain for his requests. This was one of the reasons that brought Dom Mintoff to power.

As for the questions of who owns what in different parts of the world these are questions on which any country that is not directly involved should be prudent not to be presumptuous to pronounce itself if not called upon to do so. However, when similar issues were raised within the EU, the OSCE or the UN, Malta did not keep back from expressing itself.

I cannot understand how you have come to the conclusion that under Eddie Fenech Adami, and presumably his foreign ministers Guido de Marco and Joe Borg, and his successor Lawrence Gonzi (especially during the Libyan conflict), Malta had no foreign policy.

Not always. Staff officers, such as Colonels, can be assigned to the general staff. It is not an honorific title, but a staff appointment, as opposed to a command appointment. In this, we follow standard NATO practice.

As far as I know, there are 8 Colonels assigned to AFM HQ, plus three Colonels commanding 1,3 and 4 Regiments. The total strength of the AFM is about 1500, last I heard.

You’re so irritating when you’re flippant, Jozef.

Try your flippancy on this then: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140117/opinion/The-quest-for-understanding.502937

If there is no policy, you cannot formulate a strategy to implement it. It has been hard for the PN to understand, let alone Labour.

Thanks H.P
Enlisted personnel please.

The reason I’m asking is that as far as I know, a Colonel commands a regiment, and we do seem to have a plethora of Colonels in Malta. So either we have a large army, or else the Maltese Colonel is a honorific title.

That’s easy:

1.Whatever the EU says
2.ditto
3.see above
4.Given the amount of Toyotas, Japan’s.
5.No, it’s Buddhist.

To his credit, George Borg Olivier had tried to build some sort of foreign policy, and his was the only clear definition of allies: Western Europe and the US (and therefore NATO), and of adversaries: all the enemies of the former. And of course based on a special relation with the UK, as a Commonwealth realm.

Then came Mintoff and that perverted “hbieb ma’ kullhadd” bollocks, and our fledgling foreign policy went down the toilet. No government ever since, not Eddie Fenech Adami’s or Gonzi’s, has ever managed to reconstruct anything resembling a foreign policy.

I await the inevitable question about EU membership.

To which my reply would be along the lines of a series of questions to my government:
1. Who owns the Spratly Islands?
2. Who owns the Falklands?
3. Who owns the gas fields off Cyprus?
4. In the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which side are we on?
5. Is Tibet Chinese?

And so on.

It depends what you mean by triggers. Enlisted personnel or combat personnel?

Main problem for Nick is that he has family here, and if the local bully boys don’t get their way in the UK, they will try to get at him through the family.

And that would be a spectacular mistake on the bully boys’ part.