REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A STATE DINNER HOSTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF MALTA & MRS. FENECH ADAMI
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A STATE DINNER HOSTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF MALTA & MRS. FENECH ADAMI AT THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE
President, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Grazzi tal-merhba li taghjtuni. Huwa ta' unur kbir ghal zewgi Martin u ghalija li ninsabu f'Malta din il-gimgha. Inhossuna privileggjati li qieghdin inzuru l-pajjiz sabiha taghkom. Thank you for your warm words of welcome. My husband, Martin, and I are delighted to be in Malta this week. It is a great pleasure and privilege for us to visit your beautiful country.
As first time visitors to Malta we are very privileged to be here on a State visit and to experience as we have the beauty of the landscape and the great generosity of the people.
The Irish and the Maltese inhabit famous small islands located at opposite ends of the European Union and while from the air our countries look very different in terms of physical landscape, in fact our peoples share a remarkable amount in common. We love and value our respective rich heritages. We each have strong, feisty identities, a common language, the legacy of a common experience of British colonisation, as is our passion for our hard-earned independence. We both work hard to preserve our own indigenous languages and cultures. We each have the distinctive outlook of island peoples and yet are utterly European in viewpoint and values. We share a strong commitment to the family as the cornerstone of our societies. Our neutrality defines us differently from many of our neighbours yet in no way prevents us from making an important and indeed a necessary contribution to European and world affairs.
The Irish and the Maltese know what it is to experience emigration. We know the awful sorrow and loss caused by that haemorrhage of our people, especially our young people but we also know the joy and value of having a huge international network created out of the lived lives of our emigrant sons and daughters. And now our emigrants are returning to a prosperous Ireland and among those coming to today’s prosperous Ireland are some from this island. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of visiting the Maltese Embassy in Dublin where I met members of Ireland’s vibrant Maltese community who are making such a distinctive contribution to Irish life. With the recent opening of an Irish embassy in Malta our formal links grow stronger by the day. And with tourism increasing in both directions we are in the early growth stages of a new relationship between our two islands which has considerable potential.
The structure within which that relationship will grow is, of course, the European Union to which we both bring our experience and perspective. Malta’s close links with North Africa and the Middle East are a valuable asset to the European Union and its Member States. You are in a good position to foster a spirit of open dialogue, understanding and communication with the European Union’s southern neighbours and that dialogue was never more urgently needed than at this time, when we need more bridges between cultures and not more barricades.
Ireland and Malta have, through the years, bridged the geographic gap between us with a longstanding respect and friendship. Our complex histories have given us easy access to each other’s souls and psyches. We cemented a new partnership in Dublin, in Europe, on May 1st 2004. Tonight we reaffirm our fraternal commitment to one another and our desire for a shared future of peace and prosperity for both our peoples.
I now ask you to join me in a toast:
‘To your health Mr President, to the happiness and prosperity of the people of Malta and to friendship between our two countries.’