PRESS RELEASE BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER “We did not come to Geneva to bear witness to decline. We came to correct its course” – Speaker Anġlu Farrugia

Addressing the 6th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Geneva, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malta, Anġlu Farrugia, described the current global context as a time when military logic has begun to eclipse political reasoning and when diplomacy often arrives too late. Citing the recent strike on Al Udeid airbase in Qatar and the escalation between Iran and Israel, he emphasised that no region is immune from the ripple effects of armed conflict.

Speaker Farrugia highlighted record global military expenditure in 2024, amounting to 2.718 trillion US dollars, and questioned the prioritisation of such spending in a world where over three billion people live on less than five euros a day. He stated that even a fraction of this sum could eliminate hunger, provide universal education, and ensure access to clean water, calling the current trajectory a deliberate reallocation of resources away from people and towards power.

Reaffirming Malta’s constitutional neutrality, he described it as a position of moral clarity and an active refusal to participate in systems that place the profits of arms industries above human dignity. He underscored the historic role of parliamentary diplomacy in ending the Cold War and supporting humanitarian and democratic progress in subsequent decades.

The Speaker of the House called for greater parliamentary oversight in matters of war and defence, greater transparency in military budgets, and the formal recognition of parliamentary diplomacy as a permanent structure within global governance. Concluding his address, he stated that peace is not a weakness but a daily political choice, adding that the Speakers of the world’s parliaments came to Geneva not to observe decline but to shape the course of history, in the service of those they were elected to represent.

The conference continues until 31 July 2025.