In 1918, a group of cadets and personnel of the Serbian army, on board of the SS Polynesien, was rescued to Malta and healed at Cottonera Hospital after the ship was sunk by a German torpedo.

Malta under socialist PM Dom Mintoff joined the Non-Aligned Movement, which had been launched by Yugoslav dictator Tito.

[10] During Mintoff's rule, marked by relations with Qaddafi's Libya, Yugoslavia was a rather warm ally of Malta, probably the primary one in Europe.

Future foreign minister Michael Frendo wrote his graduate thesis in 1977 on "Workers' self-management: A new concept of the legal structure of the enterprise in Malta and Yugoslavia".

[12] Foreign Affairs Minister of Malta, Tonio Borg signed two agreements with Serbia during a two-day visit in 2010 about readmission of people residing without authorisation.