Well ladies and gentlemen, I would like to declare this meeting of the IDU executive open. I welcome everybody to Malta. I express, on your behalf, our gratitude to our friends in the Nationalist Party of Malta for hosting us on this occasion. There are many reasons why we should see significance in a meeting in Malta. Malta may be a small country population wise but it's a country that has a long democratic tradition and it's a country which certainly within the Commonwealth family has been noted for very vigorous parliamentary elections and very close electoral contests and we can learn a lot from the Maltese experience.
I would particularly like to welcome the Secretary General of the International Section of the Maltese Nationalist Party who will say a few words of welcome to us in a moment. I would like to also welcome to his first executive meeting Eirik Moen of Norway, the incoming executive director of the International Democrat Union, and to welcome Jan Petersen, a deputy chairman of the organisation, a former very distinguished foreign minister of Norway and somebody who's made a very significant contribution to discussion of particularly foreign policy issues within the centre-right party grouping.
I think it is appropriate at the beginning of this meeting that we resolve, I'm sure without dissent, to send a message of congratulations to Angela Merkel, the new Chancellor of Germany. We wish her well, we have followed the contest in German politics with absorption and interest over the past few weeks. It's a challenging task but she has got off to a very active beginning and we do wish her well and we look forward to naturally the implementation of policies which broadly reflect the values and the philosophies and the principles that bind this particular organisation together.
We'll try to move rapidly through the agenda, as is my want at these meetings because often the greatest value of these gatherings are the bilateral exchanges that we can have after the formal part of the meeting has been completed. But can I say again to our Maltese hosts thank you for your gracious hospitality. I saw your Prime Minister this morning and we were talking about longevity of the Nationalist Party in Malta and he reminded me that but for I think a 22 month break between late 1996 and early 1998 it's been a period of something like 20 to 25 yeas and of course as an Australian Prime Minister I'm particularly touched to be in Malta again because on a proportionate basis Australia, a proportionate basis, Australia by far has the largest Maltese diaspora anywhere in the world. It's calculated that after World War II something close to 30 per cent of the population of Malta over a period of years emigrated to Australia and it's very difficult, my High Commissioner tells me, to travel around this beautiful country without coming across somebody who's got a relative, a cousin, a girlfriend, a boyfriend or whatever in Australia and that's something that we very greatly value because the Maltese have made a wonderful contribution to our country and we're very grateful for that contribution.
[ends]