Strong, prosperous Maldives in India’s interest: Harsh Vardan Shringla

NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardan Shringla arrived in the Maldives on Monday for a two-day visit where he called on leaders of the country and signed four MoUs. The leaders also discussed ways for economic recovery post the pandemic.

“We have just signed two MoUs for High Impact Community Development Projects, an MoU on Cooperation in Sports and Youth Affairs and an MoU for a US$ 100 million grant to fund the Greater Male Connectivity Project which is the largest ever such infrastructure project undertaken in the Maldives,” Shringla said.

He met Maldives President Ibrahim Solih and also his counterpart Abdul Ghafoor to discuss post-Covid economic recovery and also ways to strengthen ties between the two countries.

“The recovery and resilience efforts to curb the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, including boosting tourism, accelerating the implementation of the ongoing development cooperation projects across the Maldives, and the means of elevating connectivity and bilateral trade between the Maldives and India,” a statement from the Maldives foreign ministry stated.

“We see an economically strong, resilient and prosperous Maldives as fundamentally in India’s interest,” Shringla said. “We deeply appreciate the Government of President Solih for its ‘India First’ foreign policy. This is reciprocated in full measure by our ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy in which Maldives enjoys a special and central place.”

Maldives minister gets India backing

India on Monday said the Maldives should play a more prominent role in the United Nations and reiterated its support to its Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid’s candidature for the presidency of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly next year.

Addre-ssing the Maldives’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said in today’s globalised and interconnected world, multilateral engage-ment is very important.