The article is confusing. There is a small island nation called Malta, which is a sovereign state. There is also a sovereign entity called the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which is not the same as Malta and is not a state insofar as it has no territory (except for some buildings in Rome, which were granted similar status to embassies).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Ma...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta