No embassy or consulate closures have been announced, and operations continue as normal, Christy Gillmore, Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Malta told The Malta Independent on Wednesday morning.
The United States Embassy in Malta is one of ten embassies which are being considered for closure as part of U.S. State Department budget cuts, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The nine other embassies in question are based in Luxembourg, Lesotho, Eritrea, Grenada, South Sudan, the Maldives, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and the Gambia.
According to a Reuters report, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration wants to cut the State Department’s budget by nearly half, which could result in nearly 30 U.S. missions being shut down, along with cuts to foreign aid. Reuters reported that the proposed cuts are of nearly $30 billion.
But a response by a US official in Malta shows that no decision has yet been taken.
Asked whether an official decision on the potential closure of the US Embassy in Malta has been taken, Gillmore said: “No embassy or consulate closures have been announced, and operations continue as normal. The State Department continues to assess our global programs and posture to ensure we are best positioned to address modern challenges on behalf of the American people.”
The Nationalist Party on Wednesday expressed its deep concern at reports that the United States government intends to close its Embassy in Malta. Such a decision would mean that, for the first time since Independence, Malta would be left without an American Embassy.