PRIME MINISTER ATTENDS DEFENCE MINISTERIAL MEETING IN BRUSSELS

The Prime Minister leaves for Brussels today to attend an EU meeting for Defence Ministers which is also open to candidate countries.  The meeting is a follow-up to a similar meeting held last November, at which Malta agreed to provide an AFM platoon for the new EU Rapid Reaction Force intended to take on crisis management tasks as mandated by the UN or the OSCE.  Malta's platoon will be deployed on humanitarian and rescue missions.

Most of the EU member states as well as the candidate countries had made pledges to the EU initiative at the November Conference and tomorrow's meeting should focus mainly on the various contributions which were pledged during this meeting and the developments that have occurred since then.

At tomorrow's meeting, the Prime Minister is expected to inform the other Ministers of Defence about the preparations being undertaken by the Armed Forces of Malta in order to participate in the above mentioned Rapid Reaction Force, particularly the discussions and training with the Italian Forces.

The invitation to attend this meeting was made to the Prime Minister by the Swedish Minister of Defence, Mr Bjorn von Sydow.  Mr J R Grima, the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, and Mr Richard Cachia Caruana, Chairman, Core Negotiating Group, will be among the Prime Minister's delegation on this two-day visit to Brussels.  The Prime Minister is expected to be back in Malta on Tuesday night.