External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Thursday met his Maldivian counterpart and Muizzu-led government’s foreign minister Moosa Zameer in New Delhi and said, “Close partnerships with neighbours are of great value”.
Maldives Foreign Minister Zameer is the first leader to visit India after Mohamed Muizzu became the President of Maldives in November last year.
In his welcome message to Zameer, EAM Jaishankar said: “The world is today passing through a volatile and uncertain period. In such times as we saw during Covid, natural disasters and economic difficulties, close partnerships with neighbours are of great value.”
Jaishankar further said, as “close and proximate” neighbours, the development of India and Maldives ties is “obviously based on mutual interests and reciprocal sensitivity”
“As far as India is concerned, these are articulated in terms of our Neighbourhood First Policy and SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) mission,” the EAM said.
Jaishankar further told Zameer that India has been a key provider of developmental assistance to the Maldives. “Our projects have benefitted the lives of people of your country, contributed directly to the quality of life. The range from infrastructure projects and social initiatives to medical evacuations … we have also extended financial support on favourable terms in the past,” he said.
Zameer is on a three-day (May 8-10) visit to India. During his stay, the Maldives Foreign Minister is scheduled to meet the Indian leadership and hold discussions on deepening and expanding the longstanding partnership between the Maldives and India.
‘Building a stronger relationship with India highest priority for Maldives’
A report by Maldives-based paper Mihaaru mentioned Zameer saying ahead of his departure that the highest priority during his trip to India is being given to instill mutual respect and build stronger bilateral relations between the two countries
“…that is, to ensure respect for members of the public, political leaders and business persons of both countries, and to build relations that will be maintained at all levels in the future,” the Maldives minister said.
“This is the first bilateral official trip I am making to a country as the Foreign Minister. This will bring a positive energy to the relation between the two countries, and there is immense hope that this will pave the path to raise the connection to new levels,” he had said.
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Responding to a question by a media person about the repatriation of Indian military personnel based in the island nation, Zameer said the Indian government is honouring the requests of Maldives’ government and cooperating fully in withdrawing their troops.
“This is something that demonstrated the strength of the close ties the two countries have between each other. This proves that any such issues faced by these two countries can be solved through deliberations within a diplomatic process,” Zameer said.
Zameer is India at a time when diplomatic ties between India and the Maldives are on a downward trajectory.
The Maldives Foreign Minister is being closely watched as it will be seen how he helps instill confidence among the Indian leadership that the Maldives is still a reliable and trustworthy partner under the leadership of Muizzu who has, in the recent past, openly made pro-China overtures.
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