Malta

Background

Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and North Africa. The state consists of an archipelago about 80 km south of Italy, 284 km east of Tunisia, and 333 km north of Libya. Its capital is Valletta, and the country has Maltese and English as official languages, with Maltese recognized as the national language. With a population of about 574,250 living in 316 km2, Malta is one of the world’s smallest and most densely populated states.

Its location in the center of the Mediterranean gives Malta significance in shipping, regional security, and diplomacy, particularly on routes linking Europe, North Africa, and the eastern and central Mediterranean. The country is a member of the European Union, the eurozone, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United Nations, which makes it a relevant point of contact in multilateral affairs. Malta is also a developed, high-income economy with tourism as a major sector, and its maritime jurisdiction is important in incidents involving commercial shipping and sea rescue. In March 2026, Malta was mentioned in connection with the Arctic Metagaz incident, which occurred southeast of the island and involved a request for urgent evacuation of injured Russian sailors.

Malta has a long history of foreign rule and strategic contestation because of its position in the middle of the Mediterranean. It has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC and was ruled at different times by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, the Knights Hospitaller, French, and British. Under British rule in the 19th and 20th centuries, Malta served as the headquarters of the British Mediterranean Fleet and was heavily involved in World War II, before gaining independence in 1964 and becoming a republic in 1974. Its later accession to the European Union in 2004 and the eurozone in 2008 further embedded it in European political and economic structures.