Malta

French presence

As on 12 October 2021, there were 1,392 registered French people living in Malta.

Visits

To Malta:

• Laurence Boone visited Malta on 25-26 May 2023. She was received by the Maltese Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade, Ian Borg.
• The Minister of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, travelled to Malta on 7 December 2021. He was received by George Vella, President of the Republic of Malta, Robert Abela, Prime Minister, and Evarist Bartolo, Minister for European and Foreign Affairs.
• Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, visited Malta on 29 April 2021. He was received by George Vella, President of the Republic of Malta, and held discussions with Evarist Bartolo, Maltese Minister for European and Foreign Affairs, and Byron Camilleri, Maltese Minister for the Interior and National Security.
• Gérald Darmanin, Interior Minister, visited Malta on 7 November 2020. He met with Evarist Bartolo, Minister for European and Foreign Affairs, and Byron Camilleri, Minister for the Interior and National Security.
• Jean-Yves Le Drian travelled to Malta on 24 July 2020. He was met by George Vella and held discussions with Evarist Bartolo, Minister for European and Foreign Affairs, and Byron Camilleri, Minister for Home Affairs and Security.

To France:

• On 11 February 2022, Prime Minister Robert Abela travelled to Brest for the One Ocean Summit, and on 11-12 November 2021, to the Paris Peace Forum and International Conference for Libya.
• The Maltese Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, Ian Borg, met Elisabeth Borne, Minister for Transport, in Paris on 24 April 2019 and visited the worksite of one the Grand Paris tunnels.
• Prime Minister Joseph Muscat made several visits to France (including for the Paris Peace Forum in November 2018 and 2019)

Ambassadors

French Ambassador in Malta: Agnès von der Mühll (since September 2021)
Maltese Ambassador to France: Carmelo Inguanez (since December 2019)

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

Several recent agreements show our closer bilateral cooperation in areas as varied as diplomatic cooperation, space, and the management of the Maltese State’s asset portfolio. Our cultural cooperation has increased, as has bilateral technical dialogue (customs, Expertise France); dialogue between military staff is growing, although the defence relationship remains limited due to Malta’s neutrality (enshrined in its Constitution).

In terms of language learning, despite competition from Spanish, about 10% of people in Malta understand French. Cooperation projects to encourage the teaching of French have been set up with Malta, which joined the International Organisation of the Francophonie as an observer in 2018.