Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1533084
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 MARCH 2025 ANALYSIS KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt The Libyan warship that stopped neutral IT'S Wednesday, 20 August 1980 in the middle of the Med- iterranean Sea, south of Malta. Oil workers on an Italian rig contracted by Texaco are going about their daily routine on this floating outpost above the Medi- na Bank. Texaco was one of several oil companies granted a concession by Malta in 1974 to drill the sea- bed in hope of finding oil or gas. Operations on the Medina Bank had started 10 days earlier. But what was to be a normal work day, quickly turned in- to a foreboding experience for the workers on board the rig. A Libyan warship approached the platform with a threatening message. Workers were ordered to stop operations and withdraw the rig from the area. On that hot August day, the Libyan government sought to resolve the long-standing dis- pute with Malta over the delin- eation of the continental shelf by using the threat of military force. After the incident, Malta's Per- manent Representative to the UN, Victor J. Gauci, wrote to the Security Council to seek the UN's protection. The exchange of correspondence reveals that the Libyan naval vessel remained moored to one of the buoys of the rig for several days until the unfinished well was plugged and the platform forced out of Mal- tese waters. "No country, particularly a small unarmed country, should have its legitimate activities unlawfully molested by others. That is an objective which all countries should respect," Gauci wrote in one of the letters to the Security Council in September 1980. Malta was deprived, at gun point, of the possibility to carry out oil exploration on the Medi- na Bank. Worse still, the aggres- sor was a neighbouring country with which Malta had "brotherly ties", according to prime minis- ter Dom Mintoff's description of the bond between Malta and Libya in one of the letters he sent Libyan leader Muammar Gadd- afi. The warship incident was the climax of a dispute over the continental shelf that had been brewing since 1972, at least. It was eventually decided by the International Court of Justice in 1985 after the UN mediated be- tween both parties. Searching for oil Soon after the 1971 general election, a new Labour govern- ment led by prime minister Dom Mintoff negotiated a new and fi- nal lease extension for the British military base. The lease would expire in March 1979, marking the departure of all foreign mil- itary forces from the island. Before reaching this milestone, the Mintoff government was intent on transforming Malta's economy to be less dependent on the military base for income and employment. Finding oil was one such pri- ority, which necessitated the demarcation of the dividing line in international waters between Malta and Libya. Malta defined this as the equi- distance between the isle of Filf- la, Malta's southernmost shore- line, and the Libyan coast. Libya disputed this and argued that the dividing line should be de- termined by the geology of the seabed, identifying the rift south of Malta as the demarcation line. Libya also argued that if Malta's principle of equidistance should be adopted, the median line must take into account Libya's much longer coastline and com- pensate for it. In 1974, Malta granted several concessions for oil drilling in ar- eas to the south and southeast of the island based on its interpre- tation of where the median line should be. Libya drags its feet Libya objected and in 1976 the two countries signed an agree- ment to refer the dispute to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Malta's parliament ratified the agreement shortly after its signing but Libya kept delaying ratification. Libya's decision to drag its feet was the source of several rep- resentations by the Maltese gov- ernment to try and convince the Libyan authorities to ratify the agreement. The voluminous documents forming part of the acts of the case at The Hague contain sev- eral letters Mintoff wrote to Gaddafi, indicating Malta's ur- gency to settle the matter. "This lack of ratification is causing us great trouble," Mintoff told Gaddafi in his letter of 3 December 1976. "The Op- position in parliament is accus- ing us that in spite of our close friendly relations we have been unable to agree on such a simple matter." Mintoff also emphasised the commitment Libya had given Malta to help transform the is- land's economy from one de- pendent on the foreign military base to one of "development based on peaceful relations" with its neighbours. "I need to explain to you that if we succeed in finding oil before 1979, we will make a great stride forward in eliminating the need for a military base," Mintoff wrote, adding this was weighing on the Maltese government's conscience. Mintoff concluded his letter by reiterating Malta's aspiration to be a neutral state after March 1979. There was no progress regis- tered from the Libyan side and in January 1978, Mintoff wrote an- other letter to Gaddafi in which he diplomatically expressed in- credulity at Libya's delay to ratify the 1976 agreement that would pave the way for the dispute to be referred to the ICJ. "Of one thing I am sure: this [delay] is not being done capri- ciously or through carelessness because I am fully aware how hard both of us have worked to strengthen the friendship and brotherly ties between our two countries. This same bond of friendship makes it incumbent on me to inform you that the non-ratification of the May 1976 agreement is seriously demolish- ing all that we have succeeded to build together," Mintoff wrote. The Maltese prime minister reiterated the importance for Malta to drill for oil in the hope of making a successful discovery. "I know, Mr Secretary Gener- al, that you will appreciate that the people of Malta are anxious for exploration work to start, because if oil is found by 1979 our island would be able to face its future as a neutral country with greater courage," Mintoff insisted. Malta decides to drill This letter was followed up by another one in May 1978 in which Mintoff expressed disap- pointment that Libya had come forward with a proposal con- cerning the demarcation line that "put the clock back at least six years". Mintoff also urged Gaddafi to reach an agreement by which Libya would guarantee Malta's Victor J Gauci