REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A LUNCHEON HOSTED BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND MRS. GONZI
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A LUNCHEON HOSTED BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND MRS. GONZI AT THE AUBERGE DE CASTILLE, VALLETTA
Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Grazzi tal-merhba li taghjtuni. Huwa ta' unur kbir ghalija li ninsab fostkom illum.
Thank you for your warm words of welcome. It is a great privilege and honour to be here today.
Prime Minister, you and Mrs Gonzi have made Martin and I feel completely at ease on this State visit to your beautiful country and though we have never been here before we feel very much at home among friends.
I suppose it should not surprise us that the Irish and Maltese find an instantaneous friendship, for there is much in our histories which allows the citizens of these two peripheral islands to comprehend each other very profoundly. We know what it is to be small, vulnerable and to be colonised, to struggle for independence, to fight to preserve our native language and culture, to endure the drain of emigration, to cherish neutrality, to be custodians of ancient heritages, to be ambitious modern nations, to be feistily independent yet fully European. So far apart geographically and yet so close in experience - we have long since been friends and today we are partners whose futures are intertwined as common citizens of our European homeland.
Today many human bridges link us - the tourists who travel both ways, the migrants who go both ways and, with the recent developments in planned new air links between our two countries, we undoubtedly will see those numbers increase considerably. And of course we now have a resident Irish Ambassador here in Malta to match your distinguished Ambassador to Ireland. So we have moved our relationship into a higher gear and the future looks full of possibilities. I can return to Ireland full of praise for the friendliness of the Maltese and Gozitans, the warm climate and magnificent cultural heritage - all music to the ears of the travelling Irish public.
When they visit the Hypogeum Temples at Paola as I did today, they may even wonder whether our relationship is even closer than we think, for its spiral artwork is strongly reminiscent of Ireland’s famous prehistoric sites at Brú na Bóinne.
Some weeks ago it was my pleasure to meet members of the Maltese community living in Ireland. We met at your Embassy courtesy of Ambassador and Mrs. Muscat. I was able to welcome the newcomers among them and thank them and the longer-serving members of the community for their contribution to modern Ireland - for their work helps us grow, their culture helps us deepen and broaden and their talents enrich Irish life. I hope they feel as welcome in Ireland as I have felt here in Malta.
Today, I recognise with pride the contribution which individual Irish men and women have made here over the years and I thank all those Irish and Maltese who have made it their business to ensure that our two geographically remote countries would know each other well. Now we build alongside them, at State level and I hope through this visit the peoples of Malta and Ireland will experience a consolidation of our friendship and an energising of our future partnership in Europe.
I now ask you to join me in a toast:
To the good health of the Prime Minister, to the prosperity of the people of Malta and to friendship between our countries.