Remarks With The Honorable Michael Frendo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Malta During Signing Ceremony

SECRETARY RICE: Welcome, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to have Foreign Minister Frendo, Ambassador Lowell, and Permanent Secretary Pirotta with us today. I'm very proud to have the opportunity to recognize America 's friendship with Malta. It's built on decades of shared effort and most importantly, our mutual belief in the principles of democracy and freedom, so it's built on shared values and those are the best friendships.

Our countries are today closely cooperating to protect our common principles and interests against the greatest threats of our time: global terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In 2003, President Bush and President Kwasniewski of Poland unveiled the Proliferation Security Initiative. That initiative, PSI as we call it, a multilateral partnership joined together likeminded states to stop shipments of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems has been one of our most important tools.

We appreciate Malta 's participation in this partnership and today, we are expanding our cooperation even further. As a part of PSI, this ship-boarding agreement will enable our two nations to be ever more vigilant and effective in our fight against proliferation of dangerous weapons and related materials. This agreement also deters proliferators by sending a clear message that neither Malta nor the United States will tolerate the involvement of vessels flying their flags in the trade of proliferation-related cargos.

We look forward to working with you closely, Mr. Minister, in the implementation of this agreement. But let me take a moment now to express our great thanks, our nation's thanks for Malta 's partnership in the war on terror and especially for your efforts in combating violent extremism in Iraq and Afghanistan . We appreciate Malta 's contribution to training Iraqi and Afghan government officials in your prestigious Academy for Diplomatic Studies.

The training of future leaders in diplomacy is critical to the strengthening of democratic institutions and it will have a multiplying effect for years to come. Mr. Minister, I had the great pleasure of visiting your beautiful country with President George H.W. Bush for the summit in Malta with President Gorbachev. Even though on the second day, the weather was a little bit uncooperative, we did have a wonderful first afternoon in Malta where I remember the true beauty of your country, the friendliness of your people, the warmth of your hospitality, and I think it just speaks to a longstanding relationship with Malta, one that we look forward to building on in the future and that we celebrate today in this partnership on ship-boarding so that we can exercise our responsibilities against the proliferation of the world's most dangerous weapons, so thank you very much for being here.

FOREIGN MINISTER FRENDO: Thank you very much, Madame Secretary, and thank you very much for visiting Malta . And of course, you are welcome to come there and -- particularly in your travels in the region, it's always an interesting place to stop a bit and rest before you carry on with your work. I think that you put it very correctly and really, it's a very important remark for -- to recall that in our history, Malta and the United States of America have shared the experience of striving for the values of freedom and democracy.

I think this puts our bilateral relations and their development in the context of a common patrimony, which also is reflected in today's signing of this agreement to cooperate in the maritime field and the suppression of proliferations of weapons of mass destruction, which I think furthers our ongoing united commitment to international peace and security and to the fight against terrorism, which is a fight, which like this agreement, in terms of combating weapons of mass destruction, is actually dependent on global coverage. So every single country needs to put in its own effort.

As the eighth largest shipping register in the world, as a country that has peace at the core of its values, and in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, Malta views its bilateral collaboration as a means of implementing of the multilaterally agreed framework provided by the Non-Proliferation Treaties.

In my view, what we're doing today is another aspect of our collaboration, of our friendship, of our belief in the same values and of our belief -- and I think this is also something which must remain the objective for us all; it's very difficult to achieve, but we all do -- would like to see a world free from weapons of mass destruction. To do that, we have to ensure that the values of freedom and democracy actually win in the world. And I think the more we have freedom and democracy, we -- less we need to have issues which are endangering our security.

Thank you.

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